Xidian University is a national key university distinguished by many disciplines such as information and electronics and by a well-balanced combination of sciences and humanities. It is one of the key institutions of higher learning under construction according to the national “211” Project, one of the 56 universities which have set up graduate schools, one of the 35 universities which have established demonstrative software schools, and one of the 20 universities which have been given approval to found IC talents training bases.

Its predecessor was the Radio School of the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee set up in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province in 1931, which was the first school of engineering and technology founded by the older generation of revolutionaries of Mao Zedong and others. It moved to Xi’an in 1958 and was turned from the organizational system of the army to the civilian one in 1966. The present name was adopted in 1988.

Composed of two campuses, the north one and the south one, the school occupies an area of 4000 mu (about 267 hectares), with a school building area of over 1.3 million square meters. Its two libraries have a total volume of 4.2 million books. Presently, the University has more than 30000 students including 1700 doctoral students and 8600 master students. Among its 1900 faculty numbers, there are 222 advisors of Ph.D. candidates and 759 advisors of master students. 

Xidian University is among the earliest universities with established specialties of information theory, information system engineering, radar, microwave antenna, electronic machinery, and electronic countermeasure. By far it has 2 national first-degree key disciplines, 1 national second-degree key discipline, 28 provincial/ministerial-degree key disciplines, 12 doctoral degree authorization first-degree disciplines, 20 master’s degree authorization first-degree disciplines, 7 mobile centers for post-doctoral research, and 52 undergraduate specialties. According to the second-round assessment of the first-degree disciplines carried out by the Ministry of Education in 2006, the information and communication engineering discipline of Xidian University ranks second on the list in China and the electronic science and technology discipline ranks sixth.

The University promotes broad international exchange and cooperation so as to expand its external development space. It has established friendly relations with universities and research institutions in more than 40 countries and regions.

Bearing in mind the inscription written by Chairman Mao Zedong of “Serve the people wholeheartedly” and “Be hardworking and Plain-living”, the University is dedicated to the well-being of Chinese society and to the world development.