Central South University

About the university

Central South University (CSU) is situated in Changsha, a famous historical and cultural city in Hunan, China, and covers an area of — m2, with its campuses distributed on the east and west of Xiangjiang River. Backed by the majestic Yuelu Mountain and facing the grand Xiangjiang River, CSU has pleasing scenery and is ideal for study and research.

As a top university directly under the Ministry of Education (MOE) of the People's Republic of China, CSU is one of the first universities admitted into “Project 211” (the Chinese government's endeavor aimed at strengthening about 100 institutions of higher education and key disciplinary areas), “Project 985” (the Chinese government's effort to found world-class universities), and “Plan —” (the Chinese government's another initiative to improve universities' innovation forces). In September —, CSU was enlisted as one of the A-Level "Double First Rate" universities by the State Council. Currently, the Secretary of the CPC Committee of CSU is Yi Hong and the President is Tian Hongqi.

CSU was established in April — by merging the former Hunan Medical University (HMU), the former Changsha Railway University (CRU) and the former Central South University of Technology (CSUT). The predecessor of CSUT was Central South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy founded in — and that of CRU was Central South College of Civil Engineering and Architecture founded in —; their main disciplines originate in Mining & Metallurgy and Civil Engineering, two disciplines of Hunan Industrial College established in —. The predecessor of HMU was Xiangya Medical College founded in — as one of China's earliest colleges offering western medicine courses.

Based on its over one hundred years of experience in operation as an education institution, CSU actively responds to the reform of China's higher education, advocates “Learning by Doing and Learning for Using” and pursues “Virtue, Truth, Perfection, Inclusiveness”. Sticking to its own operation characteristics and orienting at major demands of the country, CSU has made great progress in its overall strength through teamwork, innovation and commitment to excellence.

CSU has complete disciplinary systems for Non-ferrous Metals, Medicine, Rail Transit, etc., covering Philosophy, Economics, Law, Education, Literature, Science, Engineering, Medicine, Management and Art, and Military Science was embraced. At present, it has 6 national key primary disciplines, 12 national key secondary disciplines, 1 national key discipline (in development) and 61 national key clinical specialties, and sets up 31 schools and institutes with 104 undergraduate majors, 35 primary disciplines authorized for the doctoral degree, 46 primary disciplines authorized for the master’s degree, 2 doctoral degree categories, 23 master's degree categories and 32 post-doctoral research centers. ESIs (Essential Science Indicators) of 15 disciplines including Materials Science, Engineering, Clinical Medicine, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Biology and Biochemistry, Neuroscience and Behavior, Mathematics, Computer Science, Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Social Sciences, Immunology, Psychiatry and psychology, Geoscience and Environmental science and ecology are among the top 1% in the world and the ESI of materials science is among the top 1‰ in the world. Besides, CSU possesses three large Grade-A Class-Three comprehensive hospitals, i.e., Xiangya Hospital, the Second Xiangya Hospital and the Third Xiangya Hospital, and also has Xiangya Stomatological Hospital and the Affiliated Cancer Hospital, Haikou Hospital and Zhuzhou Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine.