Xiamen University

Xiamen University was founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, the well-known overseas Chinese leader honored by Comrade Mao Zedong as the “Flag of the Overseas Chinese and Glory of the Nation.” It was the first university in the history of modern Chinese education to be founded by an overseas Chinese. The institution is situated in Southeast China in the beautiful coastal city of Xiamen Island. It is set amid picturesque scenery, with its campus running along the seashore at the foot of mountains. Because of its neatness and beauty, the campus is regarded as one of the finest in China. At present it is the only key comprehensive university directly affiliated with the Education Ministry in any of the five special economic zones or the many overseas Chinese hometowns in China.

Xiamen University has a Graduate School and has produced China’s first Ph.D.s in accounting, auditing, finance, higher education, and oceanography. In the past twenty years, the university has conferred doctoral and master degrees on over four thousand scholars. In March 1996, the university was one of the first universities in China to be approved by the Education Ministry to set up a graduate school, indicating that Xiamen University has become an important base for educating high-level personnel for the country.

Within the university, there are the College of Economics, the School of Law, the College of Art Education, the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, the School of Computer and Information Engineering, the School of Physics and Mechanical Electronic Engineering, the School of Oceanography and Environment, the School of Management, the Medical College, the Humanities College, the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, the College of Life Science, the Adult Education College, the Overseas Education College, and the Vocational Technical College. It has thus become a comprehensive university providing a fairly complete range of programs of education in humanities, social science, natural science, engineering and technology, management, arts education, and medical science.

The university now has fifty two sections contained within twenty seven departments, confers masters’ degrees in seventy three subjects and doctoral degrees in twenty five subjects. The twenty seven departments include Chinese Language & Literature, Journalism & Communication, Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Oceanography, Chemistry, Material Science, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Science, Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Electronic Engineering, Architecture, Economics, Planning & Statistics, Accounting, Finance & Banking, International Trade, Business Administration, Politics & Administration Management, Philosophy, Law, Music, and Fine Arts.

Xiamen University currently has a teaching and administrative staff of 3,179, of whom 1007 are full-time teachers, and 336 are professional researchers, including 6 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Science, 7 members of the State Council Academic Degree Appraisal Committee, 130 doctoral supervisors, 11 who have been awarded the title of “National Expert with Outstanding Contribution to the Country,” and over 800 professors and associate professors. Among the teachers below the age of forty five, seven have obtained the “Science Grant for Outstanding Youth” from the state; three have been listed in the “Baiqianwan Talent Project;” and ten have been included in the training program for the “Leading Figure for the New Century.”

The university has distinguished professorships listed in the State Yangtze Scholar Award Program available in physical chemistry, zoology, analytical chemistry, environmental science and engineering, and marine biology. Now the university has 12,152 students on campus, including 10,035 undergraduates, 1,695 masters’ students, 422 doctoral students, 311 international students, 176 students from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, and 325 vocational students of new and high technology. In addition, the university has 6,982 overseas correspondence students.

Xiamen University is an important scientific research base on the Southeast coast of China. It has set up forty research groupings including the State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of the Solid Surface, the State Key Laboratory for Tumor Cell Engineering, the Open Research Laboratory of Analytical Science for Material & Life Chemistry, the Open Research Laboratory of Marine Ecological Environment, and the State Education Commission Information Center for Humanities & Social Sciences. Since China’s reform and opening to the outside world, the university has won nearly 300 awards in natural sciences at the state, provincial, and ministerial levels; in humanities and social science, it has won over 230 awards at the state, provincial and ministerial levels in the 8th five-year plan alone. The university also has its unique characteristics and achievements in its studies of Taiwan, Southeast Asia, marine, and special economic zones, among others.

In order to meet the competition and challenge of the new century, Xiamen University has established new goals for even more significant development and has formulated a “Plan for Reform and Development in the 21st Century.” The institution seeks to be a comprehensive university in the first rank of Chinese universities and to exert great influence throughout the world. Xiamen University is now making great strides towards that goal.