Xiamen University


Xiamen University, colloquially known as Xia Da in Mandarin Chinese or Ha Tai in Xiamen dialect, is a public research university in Xiamen, Fujian, China. Established in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, a member of the overseas Chinese diaspora, the university is perennially ranked as one of the top academic institutions in Southern China, with strengths in economics and management, fine arts, law, chemistry, journalism, communication, and mathematics.
Today, Xiamen University hosts over 40,000 students on its four campuses. It is a Class A institution under the national Double First Class University Plan.

History

In 1919, Tan Kah Kee, an overseas Chinese businessman, donated millions of dollars to endow Amoy University in the city of Amoy. The university was founded in 1921. Tan transferred administration of Amoy University to the Nationalist government in 1937, and the institution became a national university.
At the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, United States, Amoy University was one of five institutions selected to participate in an exhibit on education in China, representing the country's higher education system.
In 1938, at the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the university temporarily relocated to Changting in western Fujian to escape Japanese invasion of Chinese coastal regions.
At the end of World War II in 1946, Amoy University moved back to Xiamen and resumed normal operations. In 1952 it became a comprehensive university embracing both arts and science. In 1963, it was designated as a state key university.
In the 1970s, the institution's English name was changed to Xiamen University referring to Xiamen, the new English name for Amoy.
In 1995, Xiamen University was selected to participate in the 211 Project, a national government initiative to provide increased financial resources for China's most promising universities. In 2000, the university was selected for the 985 Project, a national and local government initiative to provide funding for facilities construction and faculty hiring to bolster China's top universities.
In September 2017, Xiamen was recognized as a Class A institution in the Double First Class University Plan, a national government initiative to cultivate a group of elite Chinese universities into "world-class" institutions by 2050.

International cooperation

Xiamen University has maintained a global presence since its creation in 1921, attracting students from overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia. The institution established an "Overseas Correspondence Courses" program in 1956 and accepted its first foreign students in 1981. Xiamen University now has an extensive portfolio of international collaborations, including an International Cooperative Program for Innovative Talents funded by the China Scholarship Council,
and global exchange and cooperation relationships with over 300 universities such as Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman It has established 16 Confucius Institutes with partner institutions in 13 countries.
In 2011, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak began high-level discussions about creating a Malaysian branch of Xiamen University. Subsequently, in 2015 the Xiamen University Malaysia Campus was established. Known as "XMU Malaysia", the institution has been described as "historic" and is notable as the "first ever large-scale international branch" of a Chinese university. Professor Wang Ruifang was named the first chancellor of XMU Malaysia.
On 23 May 2016, Xiamen University sent a delegation to the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan to meet with leadership and professors. The delegation's objective was to discuss the institutions' strategies for commercializing research findings, fostering university-industry collaboration, and encouraging international students to learn about local language and culture.
On 18 November 2016, Xiamen University and Cardiff University in Wales, United Kingdom initiated a "strategic partnership" including a program for co-supervision of doctoral students, and £1.2 million in seed funding for "collaborative research projects" to benefit the economy of Wales. Subsequently, a delegation from Cardiff University visited the Xiamen University School of International Relations to explore possible areas of research collaboration and student exchange.
In October 2018, Xiamen University hosted the .
Xiamen University also hosts recurring China study programs for University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, Eckerd College and Bentely College in USA, and University College Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Main campus and branch campuses

The main campus of Xiamen University is located in the Siming District in southwestern Xiamen. It is situated at the foothills of mountains, facing the ocean and surrounded by Xiamen's bay. The main campus is a tourist attraction in Xiamen, itself a popular tourist destination.
The main campus of Xiamen University has a built area of 2.6 million square meters and its libraries hold 3.5 million volumes. The scope and level of its campus high-speed information network is rated first among all universities in China and has become one of the main nodes of CERNET2.
The university also has campuses in Xiang'an district of Xiamen and in Zhangzhou, Fujian.
In September 2012, Xiamen University began operations at its Xiang'an Campus, located 34 kilometers from the main campus in Siming District. The three stated goals of the new campus are to provide facilities for "newly developing disciplines and applied subjects" such as bioscience and energy, to establish "innovation platforms for applied sciences", and to house the southern headquarters of the Confucius Institute.
Currently, the Xiang'an Campus hosts over 10,000 students and faculty from ten schools: the Overseas Education College, the Medical College, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the School of Life Sciences, the School of Public Health, the Nursing Department, the College of Earth Sciences, the College of Environment and Ecology, the School of Energy Research, and the School of Aerospace Engineering.
The Xiamen University Malaysia campus, or "XMU Malaysia", established in 2015, is a branch of Xiamen University maintaining close ties with the main campus, although it functions as its own university and has its own admissions office.

Faculties and research institutes

As of 1 September 2017, Xiamen University consisted of 20 schools with 44 departments, along with many key research institutes.