Hunan University

Hunan University (HNU; ) is a public university in Yuelu, Changsha, Hunan, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.

History
Hunan University was founded in the year 976, during the Song dynasty, as Yuelu Academy, a Confucian shuyuan. In 1903, during the final years of the Qing dynasty, the school was converted into the Hunan Institute of Higher Education. The name of the institution was then changed to Hunan Normal College, and then Hunan Public Polytechnic School, before finally arriving at the name Hunan University in 1926.

In 1937, it was transformed from a provincial university into a national university, renamed the National Hunan University, and designated by the Ministry of education, becoming the fifteenth national university.

From April 1938 to May 1941, the National Hunan University suffered serious losses and, made it difficult to run the school. During the Battle of Changsha, the National Hunan University was suspended.

In 1949, the name Hunan University was again adopted, and the calligraphy of "Hunan University" was written by Mao Zedong in 1950 as soon as the People's Republic of China was founded.

In 1959, Hunan University was officially restored after the national readjustment of higher education institutions.

In 1963, HNU was subordinated to the First Ministry of Machinery Industry. In 1978, Hunan University's status as one of the 88 National Key Universities in China was reaffirmed. In 1996, Hunan University became one of the universities sponsored by Project 211. In 2000, Hunan University was selected as a member of Project 985.

In November 2010, the National Supercomputing Changsha Center was built on the Hunan University campus under the management and operation of Hunan University. It is the first National Supercomputing Center in Central China and the third of its kind apart from other two national centers situated in Tianjin and Shenzhen.

In 2011, HNU participated in the Excellence League, an alliance of 10 Chinese universities with a strong background in engineering. In 2015, HNU joined the BRICS Universities League, a consortium of leading research universities from BRICS countries. In 2017, Hunan University was listed in the Double First-Class Construction.

Academics and administration
Hunan University is a national key university under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education of China and a member of Project 211 and Project 985, as well as the Double First Class University Plan. The administration is led by a CPC secretary and a president. The current secretary is Deng Wei, and the president is Duan Xianzhong.

It has the following colleges and departments:
 * Architecture
 * Biology
 * Business Administration
 * Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
 * Chinese Language and Literature
 * Civil Engineering
 * Computer Science and Electronic Engineering
 * Design
 * Economy and Trade
 * Educational Science
 * Electrical and Information Engineering
 * Robotics
 * Environmental Science and Engineering
 * Finance and Statistics
 * Foreign Languages and International Studies
 * Journalism and Communication and Film and Television Arts
 * Law
 * Marxism Studies
 * Mathematics and Econometrics
 * Materials and Engineering
 * Mechanical Vehicle Engineering
 * Physical Education
 * Public Administration
 * Physics and Microelectronics Science
 * Yuelu Academy
 * Semiconductors (Integrated Circuits)
 * Interdisciplinary Institute of Life Medicine

Students and Academics
There are more than 30,000 full-time students, including more than 20,800 undergraduates and more than 14,000 graduate students. Hunan University has started to recruit international students since 1990s and is one of the Project 985 universities in China to launch an international student program taught entirely in English.

Rankings and reputation
Hunan University is ranked in the top 300 research universities in the world by several global university rankings such as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking, the Center for World University Rankings, and the CWTS Leiden Ranking.

Hunan University was ranked 286th worldwide in 2023 in terms of aggregate performance (THE+ARWU+QS) as reported by the Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities.

General Rankings

 * The 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) World University Rankings ranked Hunan University 15th in China.
 * In the 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Hunan University ranked #151st globally.
 * As of 2024, the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking ranked Hunan University 119th globally, 22nd in Asia, and 12th in China.

Research Rankings

 * Hunan University ranked 14th worldwide in the 2016 Nature Index Rising Stars. In 2018, Hunan University was elected among 16 universities in the world by Nature, called "Movers and Shakers". In the 2024 Nature Index Research Leaders, which measures the largest groups of papers published in 145 leading high-quality science journals, Hunan University ranked 45th among the leading academic institutions globally and 24th in the Asia-Pacific region.
 * Hunan University ranked 105th globally by the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2024 based on the number of their scientific publications in the period 2019–2022. For the proportion of their scientific publications that rank among the top 1%, 5%, 10% and 50% in their fields by citations, Hunan University ranks 52nd globally (7th in China), 15th (1st in China), 13rd (1st in China) and 4th (1st in China) respectively.
 * In 2020, a research paper by Loet Leydesdorff, a famous scientometrician, employs data from 205 China's leading research-intensive universities, including in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2020, to classify them into three main groups: Top, Middle, and Bottom. Hunan University (with a Z-score of 10.2) ranks 2nd only to Tsinghua University (z=11.0), which leads the "High Group of 32 Universities".
 * In 2022, 32 HNU faculty members were included in Clarivate's list of Highly Cited Researchers, placing HNU at No. 33 globally and third in China, behind only the Chinese Academy of Science and Tsinghua University.

Subject Rankings

 * Hunan University has been ranked in the top 30th global universities in "engineering" by several international rankings, including U.S. News Rankings, URAP ranking, and NTU Ranking.

Notable alumni
Among its prominent alumni are Wang Fuzhi, a celebrated philosopher in Chinese history; Wei Yuan, a reformist who first advocated to learn from the West; Zeng Guofan, the first Chinese to initiate the Modernization Movement (at the time called Yangwu Yundong, a movement to imitate overseas technology and industry) and to make arrangements for a modern factory in China; Zuo Zongtang, a national hero who arranged to build China's first modern navy and took great pains to defend and develop Xinjiang; Guo Songtao, China's first ambassador to a foreign country; Cai E, a major leader in defending the Republic of China; Zhang Fengxuan, the first Chinese to set foot on the continent of Antarctica; and Ci Yungui, the chief designer of China's first super computer.