Wuhan University

Wuhan University is a key university under the directadministration of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China.It is located in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, and known as "thethoroughfare leading to nine provinces". The university featuresspectacular natural surroundings with the scenic Luojia Hill in it and thebeautiful East Lake by its side. Its 373 hectares campus is wooded and green,and has fragrant flowers everywhere all the year round; the buildings are inspecial architectural styles, magnificent and mansion looking. Therefore, WuhanUniversity is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful universities in theworld.

Wuhan University dates back to Ziqiang Institute, whichwas founded in 1893 by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces inlate Qing Dynasty after the Qing Government approved his memorial to thethrone. Later, its name changed for several times before it was finally namedNational Wuhan University in July 1928. By the end of 1946, the university hadsix colleges, i.e., the colleges of liberal arts, law, sciences, engineering,agriculture and medicine. During its 120 years history, Wuhan University hasgradually formed a glorious innovative tradition and is now enjoying a veryhigh academic prestige.

With the approval by the State Council of China, newWuhan University was founded on August 2nd, 2000 with the amalgamation of fourfirst-rate universities – original Wuhan University, Wuhan University ofHydraulic and Electrical Engineering, Wuhan Technical University of Surveyingand Mapping, and Hubei Medical University. At present Wuhan University has 6faculties and 37 schools, covering 12 areas, namely Philosophy, Economics, Law,Education, Literature, History, Sciences, Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine, Managementand Arts, with 124 ungergraduate programs, 347 graduate programs, and 243doctoral programs,including 5 undergraduate programs and 6 master degreeprograms teaching in English.

There are numbers of large well-equipped teachingbuildings, laboratories, gymnasiums, sports grounds, swimming pools, archivebuildings, and a specimen building. The university's libraries have acollection of approximately 5.2 million volumes, and subscribe to more than10,000 kinds of Chinese and foreign periodicals. It now has 5 key State-levellaboratories, 11 State-level laboratories, 2 State-level research centers inengineering, 7 national research bases for humanities and social sciences, 10national bases for basic science talent development, and 32 post-doctoralstations.

The university now has 53,836 students, including 32,411undergraduates and 21,000 graduates. The teaching staff consists of more than 3,700teachers, including 3,000 or so professors and associate professors,1200 doctorsupervisors, 8 academicians of Chinese Academy of sciences, 8 academicians ofthe Chinese Academy of Engineering, 3 academicians of the internationalEurasian Academy of Sciences and 9 well-known senior scholars of arts andsocial sciences.

During the last ten years the university has established relations of academiccooperation and exchanges with over 415 universities, colleges and scientificresearch institutions in more than 45 countries and regions.

Since the 1950s, Wuhan University has taken a lead inenrolling international students in China. Ever since then, the university hasrecruited and trained several thousand foreign students coming from more than100 different countries and regions worldwide. All students have receivedsystematic training and a substantial part of them have earned Bachelor’s,Master’s or Doctoral Degree. At present there are over 2000 long-terminternational students at Wuhan University, and half of them are activelypursuing degrees.

Wuhan University accepts international students into itsBachelor, Master, Doctoral programs as well as other advanced programs inliberal arts, sciences, and medicine. The university also provides a specialBachelor of Arts program called the Chinese Language for International Studentsand there have been seven groups of graduates from the program. Besides alllevels of Chinese language teaching, the university provides courses such asChinese literature, Chinese history, Chinese economy, Chinese philosophy andChinese law for international students. To fulfill their differentrequirements, these courses will introduce basic knowledge of the society,economy, history and culture of China.

The College of Foreign Students Education (also know asthe Foreign Students Education School – FSES) of Wuhan University is adedicated school for foreign students enrollment, administration andmanagement, as well as the Chinese language teaching and training. It is alsoone of the few centers for HSK examination and for the qualificationexamination for the teachers teaching Chinese language to foreigners in China.The college, with abundant teaching resources and quality teaching andscientific research strength, has 34 teachers giving Chinese language coursesto foreigners. Among them, 14are professors or associate professors, 4 are themembers of the World Chinese Language Society for Foreigners, and 30 are themembers of China Chinese Language Society for Foreigners.