Zhongshan University, originally known as Guangdong University, was founded in 1924 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen (also known as Sun Zhongshan), a great democratic revolutionary in Chinese history. It was renamed Zhongshan University in 1926 in commemoration of Dr. Sun.  

The 1930s saw rapid developments of the university, which in 1931 had five schools (Arts, Law, Science, Agriculture and Medicine). In 1934 it established the Engineering School and the Graduate School. The latter began to take in graduate students in 1935. The Teachers' College was founded in 1937. During the Anti-Japanese War, the university was forced to move from one place to another, to Luoding in Guangdong Province, Chengjiang in Yunnan Province, Pingshi, Dongjiang and Lianxian County in Guangdong Province. It moved back to Shipai in Guangzhou in 1945 when the war was over.

In 1952, the university was restructured to conform to the nationwide plans for reorganizing schools and departments. As a result, the Schools of Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine and the Teachers' College were separated from Zhongshan University, which was made into a comprehensive university specializing in the liberal arts and sciences. In the same year it moved from Shipai to Kangleyuan, the present Guangzhou Southern Campus.

On September 10, 2000, its Zhuhai Campus was opened in Tangjiawan, Zhuhai City. The establishment of this new campus has greatly expanded the space for teaching and research, laying a solid foundation for the development of the university in the new century.

The university, located in Guangdong Province and adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, has been actively involved in academic exchanges abroad. The merger of the two universities provides the present Zhongshan University with even more academic exchange opportunities. Up to now, the university has set up academic links with over 100 well-known universities and institutions in different countries including the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, Britain, France and Germany, and has signed collaboration agreements with more than 40 of them.

The new Zhongshan University is a multidisciplinary university covering humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and technological, medical and management sciences. At present, the university comprises 15 schools and 2 colleges -- the Schools of Humanities, Foreign Languages, Law, Political Science and Public Administration, Management, Education, Mathematics and Computational Science, Physics and Engineering, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Life Science, Information Science and Technology, Public Health, Nursing Studies, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Ling Nan (Economics) College and Zhongshan Medical College. It also has other educational institutions such as the Graduate School, the School of Continuing Education and the School of Network Education.

Zhongshan University has 3,534 faculty members, among which there are 1,523 teachers, 336 professors and 617 associate professors. The university has an enrolment of over 2000 students, among which there are 2,700 doctors, 2,700 graduates, over 10,000 undergraduates and 230 foreign students.

Zhongshan University is one of the key national universities. It is also one of the first institutions approved to grant doctor's and master's degree and to set up active postdoctoral research center. The Guangdong Provincial Government has invested over RMB280 million in total in Zhangshan University since 1993.