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.[4]
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.[5]
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.[5]
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.[6][7]
In 1959, Hunan University was officially restored after the national readjustment of higher education institutions.[8]
In 1963, HNU was subordinated to the First Ministry of Machinery Industry.[6] In 1978, Hunan University's status as one of the 88 National Key Universities in China was reaffirmed.[8][9]
In 1996, Hunan University became one of the universities sponsored by Project 211.[10] In 2000, Hunan University was selected as a member of Project 985.[10][11]
In November 2010, the National Supercomputing Changsha Center was built on the Hunan University campus under the management and operation of Hunan University.[12] 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.[13]
In 2011, HNU participated in the Excellence League, an alliance of 10 Chinese universities with a strong background in engineering.[14] In 2015, HNU joined the BRICS Universities League, a consortium of leading research universities from BRICS countries.[15]
In 2017, Hunan University was listed in the Double First-Class Construction.[16][17]
Academics and administrationedit
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.[9][11] 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:[18]
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
There are more than 30,000 full-time students, including more than 20,800 undergraduates and more than 14,000 graduate students.[21] 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.[22][23]
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.[40]
Hunan University ranked 14th worldwide in the 2016 Nature Index Rising Stars.[44] In 2018, Hunan University was elected among 16 universities in the world by Nature, called "Movers and Shakers".[45] In the Nature Index Annual Table 2022, which measures the largest groups of papers published in 82 leading high-quality science journals,[46] Hunan University ranked 62nd among the leading research academic institutions globally, 27th in the Asia-Pacific, and 20th in China.[47]
Hunan University ranked 117th globally by the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2023 based on the number of their scientific publications in the period 2018–2021.[48] For the proportion of their scientific publications that rank among the top 1%, 5%, and 10% in their fields by citations, Hunan University ranks 40th in the world (8th in Asia), 9th globally (1st in Asia), and 10th in the world (3rd in Asia) respectively.[48]
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".[49]
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.[50][51]
Subject Rankingsedit
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.[52][53][54]
Notable alumniedit
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;[55] and Ci Yungui, the chief designer of China's first super computer.[56]
^ ab"Project 211 and 985 - China Education Center". www.chinaeducenter.com. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
^"National Supercomputing Center in Changsha Settles in Hunan University". www-en.hnu.edu.cn. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
^"Hunan starts building supercomputing center". www.chinadaily.com.cn. 2010-11-28. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
^""卓越联盟"津门聚会强强联合培养卓越人才". 天津大学. 2011-11-07. Archived from the original on 2013-01-26. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
^"BRICS Network University". 2017-08-23. Archived from the original on 2017-08-23. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
^"China to develop 42 world-class universities". People's Daily. 21 September 2017.
^"教育部 财政部 国家发展改革委 关于公布世界一流大学和一流学科建设高校及建设 学科名单的通知 (Notice from the Ministry of Education and other national governmental departments announcing the list of double first class universities and disciplines)" (in Simplified Chinese). September 20, 2017.
^"学校简介". Hunan University. Archived from the original on March 7, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
^"International Students at Hunan University". www.at0086.com. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
^"Degree Programs Open to Foreign Applicants in 2009-2010 Academic Year-湖南大学英文网". Hunan University. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
^"2023 Best Chinese Universities Ranking". Shanghai Ranking. 2023. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
^"Wu Shulian University Ranking". Chinese Academy of Management Science. 2023. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
^Chinese Universities Alumni Association (2024). "Alumni Association (22nd Edition): Chinese University Rankings 2024". Retrieved January 16, 2024. Alternative URL
^"QS University Rankings 2024 - China (Mainland)". Top Universities. 2024. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
^"THE University Rankings 2024 - China". Times Higher Education (THE). 2024. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
^"QS World University Rankings: Asia 2024". QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited. 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
^"Asia University Rankings 2023". Times Higher Education. 2023. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
^"Academic Ranking of World Universities". Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 2023. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
^"QS World University Rankings". QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited. 2024. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
^"THE World University Rankings". Times Higher Education. 2024. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
^U.S.News & World Report (2022). "Best Global Universities - US News". Retrieved July 20, 2023.
^"ARWU World University Rankings 2020 | Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020 | Top 1000 universities". Shanghai Ranking. 2020. Archived from the original on 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
^"Best Global Universities Rankings: Hunan University". U.S. News & World Report. 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
^Studies (CWTS), Centre for Science and Technology. "CWTS Leiden Ranking". CWTS Leiden Ranking. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
^"URAP - University Ranking by Academic Academic Performance". www.urapcenter.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
^"World University Rankings 2023 | Global 2000 List | CWUR". cwur.org. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
^"Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities 2023". research.unsw.edu.au. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
^ abStudies (CWTS), Centre for Science and Technology. "CWTS Leiden Ranking". CWTS Leiden Ranking. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
^Leydesdorff, Loet; Wagner, Caroline S.; Zhang, Lin (2020-11-17). "Are University Rankings Statistically Significant? A Comparison among Chinese Universities and with the USA". arXiv:2011.08591 [cs.DL].
^"The Most Highly Cited Researchers and Institutions of 2022". www.laboratoryequipment.com. November 28, 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-01.