Fudan University

History

1905–1917: college-preparatory school

The university traces its origins to Fudan College, established in 1905 by Chinese Jesuit priest Ma Xiangbo. Prior to founding Fudan, Ma had established Aurora College, where the Society of Jesus frequently opposed and intervened in student movements. This led Ma to create a new institution, Fudan College, as a preparatory school for higher education with government funding, offering three-year education for general or specialised tracks. After the 1911 Revolution, Fudan continued to offer general rather than specialised education.

1917–1941: private university

Fudan became a private university in 1917, establishing specialised departments including Chinese literature, foreign literature, banking, business and administration, economics, politics, civil engineering and psychology. In 1921, university preparatory education was ended and the university began to adopt an American-styled credit and elective system, per a national policy. In 1928, Fudan was registered with the Ministry of Education of the newly founded Nationalist government. In 1929, the university was organised into four faculties, namely Liberal Arts, Science, Law and Commerce. In 1937, it moved to Chongqing due to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

1941–1949: national university

In 1941, with the approval from the Nationalist government, the university was transformed from a private university to a national university, which allowed the government to control Fudan's major posts, including the president, provost and dean. In early 1946, the university returned to Shanghai. In China under Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang, Fudan University was tasked with providing a Western-style education to Chinese students to support the country's economic reconstruction efforts.

1949–1976: Mao Zedong era

In 1949, the university was taken over by the Shanghai Military Control Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as the CCP defeated the Kuomintang in the Chinese civil war. By 1952, the CCP remodelled the Chinese higher education based on the Soviet model, leading to the inclusion of Communist ideology in Fudan's educational offerings. Fudan was transformed into a Soviet-style comprehensive university, with departments of arts and science of other universities merged into Fudan, leaving Fudan the only university to provide basic science and arts in Shanghai. In China under Mao Zedong, Fudan University was tasked with transmitting socialist values to further the agenda of the CCP. During the Cultural Revolution, the teaching at Fudan was completely halted due to political turmoils.

1976 to present

In 2000, Fudan University merged with Shanghai Medical University, which was founded as the Fourth National Chungshan University School of Medicine in 1927, to form the new Fudan University.

In December 2019, Fudan University changed its constitution, removing the phrase "academic independence and freedom of thought" and including a "pledge to follow the Communist party's leadership", leading to protests among the students. It also said that Fudan University had to "equip its teachers and employees" with "Xi Jinping Thought", leading to concerns about the diminishing academic freedom of Fudan.

The university set up a 1 billion yuan fund of funds for startup innovation in 2023 as well as launching what it claims to be China's largest cloud-based scientific research computing platform CFFF.

The Hungarian government made an agreement to open the first campus of Fudan University outside China in Budapest in 2024. The expansion would cost 540 billion HUF, of which 450 billion would be paid by the Hungarian state from a Chinese loan. The construction would be mainly done by Chinese companies. Hungarian education professionals and politicians denounced the investment, citing economics, higher education and national security concerns.

Campus

Fudan has five undergraduate colleges – Zhide (志德), Tengfei (腾飞), Keqing (克卿), Renzhong (任重), and Xide (希德).

The university has four campuses in Shanghai – Handan (邯郸), Fenglin (枫林), Zhangjiang (张江), and Jiangwan (江湾) – that share the same central administration. It also has 17 affiliated hospitals.

Academic profile

International links

Fudan has joint MBA programs in the School of Management with MIT Sloan School of Management in the US (since 1996, leading to a Fudan degree), BI Norwegian Business School in Norway (since 1996, leading to a BI Norwegian Business School degree), the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong (leading to a University of Hong Kong degree), and Washington University in St. Louis in the US (leading to a WUSTL degree). There are also a double degree in international management with Bocconi University and Luiss University in Italy (since 2005, leading to a master's in international management from one of the Italian universities), an executive MBA with National Taiwan University, and a global master's in management with London Business School (leading to degrees from both institutions).

Fudan University School of Economics has had a partnership with Durham University Business School in England to deliver a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree awarded by Durham University since 2006, with the first students starting in 2007. Fudan remains the main location, but some elements of the course are also delivered at Durham and in San Francisco, USA.

Fudan, Korea University Business School in Korea, and the National University of Singapore in Singapore have collaborated on the S3 Asia MBA since 2008, with students spending six months at each of the institutions. Fudan students receive a dual degree from Fudan and one of the other universities in the collaboration.

Beyond business education, the Fudan Institute for Global Public Policy (IGPP) strengthens international collaboration through strategic academic hubs, including the LSE-Fudan Research Centre for Global Public Policy (with the London School of Economics) and the Fudan-Arab Research Centre for Global Development and Governance (focused on MENA regions). These centers foster cross-border research, policy dialogue, and academic exchange, positioning IGPP as a bridge between China, Europe, and the Middle East.

Reputation and rankings

Subject rankings

Research output rankings

Regarding research output in natural science and life science, the Nature Index Research Leaders 2024 ranked Fudan the No.9 university in the Asia Pacific region, and 12th in the world among the global universities. The 2024 CWTS Leiden Ranking ranked Fudan 11th in the world based on their publications for the time period 2019–2022.

Notable alumni

Main article: List of Fudan University people

Since 1952, Fudan University has a total of 95 academicians alumni, second only to Peking University and Tsinghua University in China. Fudan's notable alumni include:

• Chen Yinke (1890–1969), historian, linguist, orientalist, politician, and writer.
• Chen Wangdao (1891–1977), scholar and educator recognized as the first and only person to translate The Communist Manifesto into Chinese completely
• Chen Zhili (born 1942), politician
• Chu Coching, geologist and meteorologist
• David Ji (born 1952), Chinese-American electronics entrepreneur who co-founded Apex Digital, and was held against his will in China for months without charges during a business dispute
• Kerry Chen, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of ATRenew
• Yan Fu, military officer, newspaper editor, translator, and writer known for introducing Western ideas to China in the late 19th century
• Yu Youren, educator, scholar, calligrapher, and politician
• Wang Huning (born 1955), political theorist and a top leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

References

References

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