Fudan University (China)

Fudan University was established in 1905 as Fudan Public School. It was the first institution of higher education to be founded by a Chinese person. The two characters, fù (“return”) and dàn (“dawn”) were borrowed from A Commentary on The Classic of History （《尚书大传·虞夏传》）, of which the part on the Yu and the Xia dynasties mentions: “Brilliant are the sunshine and moonlight, again the morning radiance returns at dawn.” In 1917, the institution was renamed Fudan University, which has been kept ever since.

On April 27th, 2000, a new Fudan University emerged after the merger with Shanghai Medical University. In this decade, Fudan University became a comprehensive research-oriented university renowned both at home and abroad for its arts, sciences and medicine. In 2005, Fudan celebrated the 100 anniversary of the founding of the university and reaffirmed its goal of constructing a socialist comprehensive university with world-class academic capabilities. Fudan implemented a new model of continuous general education throughout the entire undergraduate studies and a talent cultivation system that accentuates innovation ability and inquiry skills. To fit such rapid growth, Fudan expanded to four campuses: Handan, Fenglin, Jiangwan and Zhangjiang.