Fudan University

1905–1917: college-preparatory school

The university traces its origins to Fudan College, established in 1905 by Chinese Jesuit priest Ma Xiangbo. Prior to founding Fudan, Ma had established Aurora College, where the Society of Jesus frequently opposed and intervened in student movements. This led Ma to create a new institution, Fudan College, as a preparatory school for higher education with government funding, offering three-year education for general or specialised tracks.^[4]: 58-60 After the 1911 Revolution, Fudan continued to offer general rather than specialised education.^[4]: 63

1917–1941: private university

Fudan became a private university in 1917, establishing specialised departments including Chinese literature, foreign literature, banking, business and administration, economics, politics, civil engineering and psychology.^[4]: 63 In 1921, university preparatory education was ended and the university began to adopt an American-styled credit and elective system, per a national policy.^[4]: 69 In 1928, Fudan was registered with the Ministry of Education of the newly founded Nationalist government. In 1929, the university was organised into four faculties, namely Liberal Arts, Science, Law and Commerce. In 1937, it moved to Chongqing due to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.^[4]: 71

1941–1949: national university

In 1941, with the approval from the Nationalist government, the university was transformed from a private university to a national university, which allowed the government to control Fudan's major posts, including the president, provost and dean. In early 1946, the university returned to Shanghai.^[4]: 71 In China under Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang, Fudan University was tasked with providing a Western-style education to Chinese students to support the country's economic reconstruction efforts.^[4]: 75

1949–1976: Mao Zedong era

In 1949, the university was taken over by the Shanghai Military Control Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as the CCP defeated the Kuomintang in the Chinese civil war.^[4]: 77 By 1952, the CCP remodelled the Chinese higher education based on the Soviet model, leading to the inclusion of Communist ideology in Fudan's educational offerings.^[4]: 79 Fudan was transformed into a Soviet-style comprehensive university, with departments of arts and science of other universities merged into Fudan, leaving Fudan the only university to provide basic science and arts in Shanghai.^[4]: 81 In China under Mao Zedong, Fudan University was tasked with transmitting socialist values to further the agenda of the CCP.^[4]: 78 During the Cultural Revolution, the teaching at Fudan was completely halted due to political turmoils.^[4]: 80

1976 to present

In 2000, Fudan University merged with Shanghai Medical University, which was founded as the Fourth National Chungshan University School of Medicine in 1927, to form the new Fudan University.^[5][6]

In December 2019, Fudan University changed its constitution, removing the phrase "academic independence and freedom of thought" and including a "pledge to follow the Communist party's leadership", leading to protests among the students.^[7][8] It also said that Fudan University had to "equip its teachers and employees" with "Xi Jinping Thought", leading to concerns about the diminishing academic freedom of Fudan.^[9][10]

The university set up a 1 billion yuan fund of funds for startup innovation in 2023 as well as launching what it claims to be China's largest cloud-based scientific research computing platform CFFF.^[11][12]

The Hungarian government made an agreement to open the first campus of Fudan University outside China in Budapest in 2024.^[13] The expansion would cost 540 billion HUF, of which 450 billion would be paid by the Hungarian state from a Chinese loan. The construction would be mainly done by Chinese companies.^[14] Hungarian education professionals and politicians denounced the investment, citing economics, higher education and national security concerns.^[15]

Academic organization

Academically, Fudan is organised as a comprehensive university covering the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, medicine, management and arts. The university consists of 12 disciplinary areas, with 35 schools and departments across 11 broad subject areas.^[16][18] The university's academic structure includes schools and departments in fields such as literature, philosophy, history, economics, law, international relations, journalism, mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, information science, management and medicine.^[18]

Fudan's medical education and research are linked to Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University and the university's affiliated hospitals. There are 17 affiliated hospitals including Zhongshan Hospital and Huashan Hospital among the affiliated hospitals.^[18][17] In 2025, there was the establishment of an affiliated hospital development fund intended to support medical innovation and academic research across Fudan's hospital system.^[21]

In 2024, Fudan established four innovation colleges connected with integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence and advanced technology. The four units were identified as the schools for integrated circuits and micro-nano electronics, computing and intelligence, biomedical engineering and technology, and intelligent robotics and advanced technology.^[22]

Governance

The university is organised under the Fudan University Charter, which was approved by the Ministry of Education as Higher Education Institution Charter Approval No. 36 in 2014.^[23] The charter forms part of a wider Ministry of Education framework for university charters, which are used as basic institutional rules for university governance, administration and public functions.^[24]

As a state-run Chinese university, Fudan operates under the president responsibility system under the leadership of the university committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Article 39 of the Higher Education Law of the People's Republic of China provides that state-run higher education institutions practise this system, with the party committee exercising unified leadership over university affairs and supporting the president in carrying out administrative responsibilities.^[25]

The university's charter was amended in 2019 with approval from the Ministry of Education.^[26] The amendment attracted public attention because it changed language in the charter's preamble and added stronger references to party leadership. Reuters described the revised charter as identifying Fudan's party committee as the core of the university, responsible for setting direction and making major decisions.^[27]

The president is the university's legal and administrative head, while the party secretary leads the university party committee. Jin Li became president of Fudan University in November 2021 and was appointed at vice-ministerial level.^[28] Qiu Xin became party secretary of Fudan University in February 2023 and was also appointed at vice-ministerial level.^[29]

Fudan's governance structure includes a party committee, president-led administrative system, academic governance bodies and representative bodies for faculty and students. University charter arrangements in China commonly define the roles of the party committee, president, academic committee, teaching and research bodies, staff and students within the internal governance framework of each institution.^[24] Fudan's academic governance includes bodies such as an academic committee, degree evaluation committee and teaching guidance committee, while university-level decision making is conducted through the party committee and president-led administrative meetings under the framework of Chinese higher-education law and the university charter.^[25][27]

Finance and budget

In 2024, Fudan University recorded total income of RMB 12.03 billion, approximately US$1.65 billion, in its departmental final accounts. The accounts cover Fudan University proper and do not consolidate the finances of its affiliated hospitals or other separate entities.^[30]

Fudan University receives government funding and is co-funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government.^[31][32] The university has been selected into several national higher-education development programmes, including Project 211, Project 985 and the Double First-Class Construction.^[33][34] Fudan is one of beneficiaries of funding through China government's State Key Laboratories program.^[35]

The university also raises funds through donations. In 2025, Cao Guowei, chairman and chief executive officer of Sina, and Wang Changtian, chairman of Enlight Media, jointly donated RMB 100 million, approximately US$13.7 million, to establish Fudan's New Liberal Arts Development Fund.^[36][37] In the same year, Li Ping, vice chairman of CATL, and his wife Liao Mei made a one-time donation of RMB 1 billion, approximately US$137 million, to support the Xue Min Institute of Advanced Studies, a research institute focused on basic and interdisciplinary science.^[38][39]

Student and faculties statistics

As of May 2025, Fudan had 15,420 undergraduate students, 36,012 graduate students, 2,011 international students and 3,647 teaching and research staff.^[16]

Research

Fudan University and its affiliated hospitals have been associated with research in medicine, public health, artificial intelligence, semiconductor devices, flexible electronics and energy-systems modelling. Coverage of recent research has focused particularly on clinical medicine and biomedical applications, as well as applied research in electronics and computing.^{[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]}

Fudan University has five state-level key laboratories and 29 provincial- and ministerial-level laboratories.^{[48][49][4][50][51]}

Its state-level laboratories include:

• State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics^[52]
• State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, also referred to as the State Key Laboratory of Application-Specific Integrated Circuits and Systems^{[citation needed]}
• State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering^[53]
• State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology^[54]
• State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers^[55]

Examples of ministerial-level laboratories associated with Fudan include the Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of the Ministry of Education, the Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology of the Ministry of Education and the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, and the Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences of the Ministry of Education.^{[56][57][58][59]}

In addition to research aligned with government and national development initiatives, Fudan University has also developed industry collaboration and commercialization activities, including partnerships or joint projects with Allianz, China Telecom, Unilever, Alibaba Group, Tencent, Jiangnan Shipyard and the Hong Kong Productivity Council.^{[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][excessive citations]}

Libraries and collections

The Fudan University library system consists of five branch libraries: the Arts & Humanities Library, Science Library, Medical Science Library, Zhangjiang Library, and Lee Shau Kee Library, with a total building area of 66,137 square meters. Its collections amount to 5.46 million volumes, including books and bound periodicals. Furhermore, the libraries hold a large collection of ancient Chinese books. The ancient-book collection includes more than 400,000 volumes, including rare editions, manuscripts and printed works from different periods of Chinese history. The collection also includes more than 1,000 copies of the Shi Jing dating from the Yuan dynasty to the Qing dynasty.^[67]

The library is involved in the preservation and restoration of ancient Chinese books. Conservation-related work at Fudan has included research on traditional Chinese paper, ink and pigments, as well as studies of Kaihua paper, palm-leaf manuscripts, birch-bark scrolls and microorganisms found on ancient books.^[67]

Fudan University Library has also participated in international conservation exchange. In 2023, the University of British Columbia Library hosted Yan Li, a rare-books conservator from Fudan University Library, for a 100-day visit under a memorandum of understanding between the two libraries. The exchange involved conservation work on Asian rare books and knowledge-sharing between Chinese and Western conservation practices.^[68]

The Lee Shau Kee Library at Fudan's Jiangwan Campus was inaugurated in 2008. The library was built with a RMB100 million donation from Lee Shau Kee, the founder of Henderson Land Development.^[69]

The library system has also expanded its electronic resources. As of 2026, electronic books accounted for about 70 percent of Fudan University Library's collection.^[70]

Fudan University Press

Fudan University Press is an academic publishing house associated with Fudan University. The press publishes academic, educational and professional titles, including works in the humanities, social sciences, medicine and other university-related fields. A study of China's book-publishing industry identified Fudan University Press as among the university presses active in copyright trade.^[71] The press has also published scholarly works that were later issued in revised, abridged or translated editions, including humanities titles used in Chinese literature and cultural studies.^[72] The press publishes periodicals like Fudan Journal, Rhetoric Learning, Journalism University, Research and Development Management, World Economy Literature, and Population.^{[73][74][75][76]}

Fudan University Press has appeared in academic discussion of publishing control in mainland China. A 2022 study of book censorship after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre cited a 2005 Fudan University Press edition as an example of a mainland Chinese edition whose contents differed from versions published outside mainland China.^[77]

International links

As of 2024,^[update] Fudan has joint MBA programs in the School of Management with MIT Sloan School of Management in the US (since 1996, leading to a Fudan degree), BI Norwegian Business School in Norway (since 1996, leading to a BI Norwegian Business School degree), the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong (leading to a University of Hong Kong degree), and Washington University in St. Louis in the US (leading to a WUSTL degree).^[78] There are also a double degree in international management with Bocconi University and Luiss University in Italy (since 2005, leading to a master's in international management from one of the Italian universities), an executive MBA with National Taiwan University, and a global master's in management with London Business School (leading to degrees from both institutions).^[78]

Fudan University School of Economics has had a partnership with Durham University Business School in England to deliver a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree awarded by Durham University since 2006, with the first students starting in 2007.^[79] As of 2024,^[update] Fudan remains the main location, but some elements of the course are also delivered at Durham and in San Francisco, USA.^[80][81]

Fudan, Korea University Business School in Korea, and the National University of Singapore in Singapore have collaborated on the S3 Asia MBA since 2008, with students spending six months at each of the institutions.^[82] Fudan students receive a dual degree from Fudan and one of the other universities in the collaboration.^[83]

Beyond business education, the Fudan Institute for Global Public Policy (IGPP) strengthens international collaboration through strategic academic hubs, including the LSE-Fudan Research Centre for Global Public Policy (with the London School of Economics) and the Fudan-Arab Research Centre for Global Development and Governance (focused on MENA regions). These centers foster cross-border research, policy dialogue, and academic exchange, positioning IGPP as a bridge between China, Europe, and the Middle East.

Reputation and rankings

Fudan University is ranked in several international university rankings. In the 2026 QS World University Rankings, Fudan was ranked 30th globally and 5th in the QS Asian University Rankings.^[95] In the 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, it was ranked 36th globally.^[96] In the 2026 Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings, Fudan was ranked 7th in Asia.^[97]

The 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities placed Fudan 41st globally.^[98] In the 2025 Center for World University Rankings, Fudan was ranked 73rd globally, 11th in Asia and 6th in China.^[99] In the 2025–2026 U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities ranking, Fudan was ranked 70th globally.^[100]

Fudan also appears in subject rankings across science, medicine, engineering, social sciences and management. In the 2026 Times Higher Education subject rankings, Fudan was ranked 22nd in physical sciences, 25th in business and economics, joint 34th in medical and health, 36th in engineering, 37th in life sciences, 46th in computer science, 77th in law, 88th in social sciences and joint 92nd in arts and humanities.^[96] ShanghaiRanking's 2025 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects listed Fudan at 4th in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, 9th in nanoscience and nanotechnology, 11th in biomedical engineering, 18th in chemistry, and 22nd in both materials science and engineering and environmental science and engineering.^[98]

Regarding research output in natural science and life science, the Nature Index Research Leaders 2024 ranked Fudan the No.9 university in the Asia Pacific region, and 12th in the world among the global universities.^[101] The 2024 CWTS Leiden Ranking ranked Fudan 11th in the world based on their publications for the time period 2019–2022.^[102]