Wuhan University is a key university directly under the Ministry of Education. It is located in Hubei Province's capital Wuhan city, known as "the thoroughfare leading to nine provinces". The university has rolling physical features with the scenic Luojia Hill in it and the beautiful East Lake by its side. Its campus is wooded and green, and has fragrant flowers everywhere all the year round; the buildings are magnificent and mansion-like in special architectural styles. For the above reasons, Wuhan University is widely known as one of the most beautiful universities in the world.

The university dates back to the Ziqiang Institute, which was founded in 1893 by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan provinces in late Qing Dynasty (1840-1911) after his memorial to the throne was approved by the Qing Government. Later, it changed its name several times before it was named the National Wuhan University in July 1928. During the War of Resistance against Japan, Wuhan University moved to Leshan City, Sichuan Province and returned to Luojia Hill after the victory of the war. By the end of 1946, the university had six colleges, namely, the colleges of liberal arts, law, sciences, engineering, agriculture and medicine. In 1948, Oxford University of Britain wrote an official letter to the Ministry of Education, confirming that bachelors of liberal arts and sciences graduated from Wuhan University with average grades above 80 could enjoy "the senior status of Oxford".

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party and the Central Government have attached great importance to Wuhan University. Mao Zedong, Ye Jianying, Peng Dehuai, Zhang Wentian, Lu Dingyi and others inspected the university personally. In 1952, after a nationwide restructuring of the higher educational institutions throughout the country, Wuhan University became a key university of liberal arts and sciences directly under the Ministry of Education. Professor Li Da, delegate to the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and a celebrated philosopher, economist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, held the post of president in the university for 14 years, during which the teaching quality and the scientific research level were further enhanced.

Since the start of China's reform and opening up policy, the university has made great achievements through its courageous reforming, opening up, and advancing in every aspect.

Approved by the State Council, the new Wuhan University was founded on August 2, 2000 after merging with Wuhan University of Hydraulic and Electrical Engineering, Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping, and Hubei Medical University. The new Wuhan University (named Wuhan University hereinafter) has a vast range of development prospects because it is a combination of 4 top universities in China or in the province -- Three are China's key universities of "Project 211", and the other is a key university of Hubei Province.

Now majors in Wuhan University includes philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, sciences, engineering, agriculture, medicine and management, with an enrolment of 40,000-odd students. It is one of the first universities authorized by the State Council to set up graduate schools. In the university, 99 disciplines offer doctoral programs and 188 disciplines offer master's degree programs. Its 20 disciplines have been evaluated as state-level key disciplines and 17 are listed as "Project 211" key disciplines.

The university now has more than 5,000 teachers, including over 3,000 professes and associate professors, 460 doctorate supervisors, 5 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 2 academicians of the international Eurasian Academy of Sciences. The university also has 21 disciplines that offer "the Changjiang River Program Awarding Scholars" for the posts of the special appointed professors.

During the past 10 years, Wuhan University completed thousands of natural sciences research projects, among which many reached international advanced levels and more than 600 won various awards. The university submitted 455 applications for patent.

Wuhan University boasts a campus covering an area of 5342 mu(1/15 of a hectare) and it has a floorage of 2.19 million square meters. There are large modernized teaching buildings, laboratory buildings, gymnasiums, sports grounds, swimming pools, archive buildings, and a specimen building with more than 200,000 pieces of valuable animal and plant specimens. It now has two key State-level laboratories, four State-level discipline laboratories, two State-level research centers in engineering, six national research bases for humanities and social sciences, and seven national bases for fostering basic science personnel. The university publishes over twenty academic periodicals, including the Wuhan University Journal, and sets up its own presses including an audiovisual material publishing house. The university has colleges of foreign students education and adult education, East Lake Branch School, and three affiliated hospitals.

Wuhan University has a tradition of opening up. It sent abroad over 5,000 members of different kinds under various programs, invited hundreds of famous foreign scholars and political personages to be its part-time professors, honorary professors or guest professors, and established academic cooperation and exchanges with more than 200 universities, colleges and scientific research institutions in more than 60 countries and regions.

On the occasion of its centennial celebration in 1993, Jiang Zemin, Li Peng and other Party and State leaders presented their inscriptions of congratulations, while 47 foreign colleges and universities including Harvard University, Yale University, and Tokyo University as well as various fraternal colleges and universities at home either sent representatives to attend the celebration or sent letters of congratulations. In November 1995, Wuhan University was listed as one of China's most celebrated universities by Science, an authoritative periodical in the international scientific field. In the meantime, the university also successfully passed the preliminary qualification assessment for "Project 211" and was included in the priority project for the development of national key universities. In 1999, Wuhan University was fixed by the Chinese central government as a university whose heads enjoy the same position as a vice-minister of the State Council. Recently, the Ministry of Education and Hubei Provincial Government decided to make joint efforts to build Wuhan University into a "high-level university well-known both at home and abroad".

Wuhan University is working hard to build itself into a first-grade university of the world. To this end, greater efforts have been made to raise the quality of teaching, scientific research and other fields to international levels so that the university can enjoy a high position and great prestige in the international academic circles.