Situated in the famous historical and cultural city of Changsha, Central South University (CSU) is a comprehensive and national key university under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Education of China. The University is among the first group admitted into both Project 211, a project of building national key universities and colleges for the 21st century, and Project 985, a joint constructive project of building world-class universities co-sponsored by the Chinese central government and local governments. And it is listed among the first batch of leading universities and colleges participating in the “Initiative 2011”, a national cooperative platform for improving the innovation capability of higher education institutions in China.

CSU was established in April, 2000 by merging three separate universities: Hunan Medical University (HMU), Changsha Railway University (CRU), and Central South University of Technology (CSUT). The former CSUT develops from Central South College of Mining and Metallurgy established in 1952.CRU originates from Central South College of Civil Engineering and Architecture founded in 1953. Both CSUT and CRU rooted their main disciplines in the mining and road engineering areas of Hunan Higher  Industrial School established in 1903. HMU dates its history back to Xiangya Medical College, which was created in 1914 and is one of the earliest colleges of western medicine inChina.

CSU covers 12 fields of study, including engineering, science, medicine, literature, law, economics, management, philosophy, education, history, agriculture and Arts. It owns comprehensive discipline systems for nonferrous metals, medical science and rail transportation, etc. CSU also owns many national key disciplines, including 6 national key first-level disciplines and 12 national key second-level disciplines, 59 national key clinical specialties. The University offers 94 undergraduate programs, 58 master programs (first-level disciplines),33 doctoral programs (first-level disciplines) and 31 post-doctoral research stations. There are 7 disciplines whose ESI ranking is among global top 1%, namely, Materials Science, Engineering, Clinical Medicine, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Biology and Biochemistry and Neuroscience and Behavioral Science. Besides, CSU boasts 6 affiliated hospitals, including 3 Xiangya hospitals (with widespread reputation), Xiangya Stomatology Hospital, The Affiliated Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine and Haikou  Hospital.

CSU gathers many prominent scholars and professors, about 1400 of whom are professors or have senior titles, more than 1000 are tutors of postgraduate candidates, about 44 are experts from the “1000-elite Program”, 15 are members of Chinese Academy of Engineering and 2 are members of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

There are over 53,000 students in total, including more than 33,000 undergraduate students, over19,000 master and PhD candidates and almost 1000 international students and students from Hong Kong, Macau andTaiwan. CSU is the pilot university for the “Excellent Talents Initiative” of Ministry of Education, which is designed to educate and train talented engineers, doctors and law practitioners forChina. CSU is one of the first group of pilot universities offering 8-year medical education program (Doctor of Medicine) and also is the first university offering master programs for training military officers by integrating their military and professional skills. In recent years, for Undergraduate Teaching Assessment, CSU is highly rated by Ministry of Education and has been invited to share its experience in solving graduates’ employment. As a result, CSU is one of the top 10 most welcomed universities and colleges by the employers inChina.

The University currently owns 16 national innovation platforms, including 3 national key laboratories, 4 national engineering research centers, 4 national engineering laboratories, 2 national engineering technology research centers, 1 national clinical research center, 1 defense science and technology laboratory, 1 national engineering and innovation capacity promoting platform. Since 2000, CSU has has won 78 awards out of three national major award categories for science and technology, including 9 first and grand prizes and 8 programs listed in the “Top 10 Science and Technology Progress in Universities and Colleges”.

The University has established long-term contacts and cooperative relationships with over 200 colleges and universities as well as research institutions from 20 countries and regions. At present, international students coming from more than 80 countries and regions are studying in CSU.

Central South University now is striving to build itself as a high-level, world-renowned and characterized research university, and to make greater contribution to the realization of Chinese Dream.