Hunan University (HNU) is situated at the foot of the picturesque Yuelu Mountain and on the west bank of the rippling Xiangjiang River in the historically and culturally renowned City of Changsha, capital of Hunan Province. It enjoys the title of an "Ancient Millenarian Academy, Famous Centennial University". As one of the key and most comprehensive universities affiliated with the Ministry of Education, it has been included in the state's "Project 211" and "Project 985" for priority investment and construction, and the project of building world-class universities.
HNU has Graduate School and 25 colleges and departments. Professional disciplines involve 11 subject categories, namely philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, management, medicine, and arts, which offer 28 first-order disciplines authorized to confer Ph.D. degrees; three professional doctorate degree authorization; 35 first-order disciplines authorized to confer Master's degree; 26 professional master's degree authorizations; and, and 62 undergraduate disciplines. It has 2 key first-order disciplines and 14 key second-order disciplines at the national level, and 28 post-doctoral research programs. Nine disciplines – chemistry, engineering science, materials science, physics, biology and biochemistry, environmental ecology, computer science, mathematics, and social science general – rank among top 1% on the ESI rankings, among which engineering science and chemistry rank among top 1‰. Seven characteristic disciplines are designated as national defense ones. Chemistry and mechanical engineering are listed as "world-class disciplines" of the Ministry of Education.
The full-time student body totals more than 37,000, of which over 20,000 are undergraduates and 15,000 are graduates. It has a staff of more than 4,000, of which 2,250 are full-time teachers. It has 12 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering; 5 members of the Academic Degree Commission under the State Council; 56 candidates of the state's talents programs; 24 winners of the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars; 20 winners of the National Science Foundation for Excellent Young Scholars; 6 winners of national outstanding teacher awards; 14 young and middle-aged leading talents in the Innovative Talent Promotion Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology; and, 134 candidates of the New Century Excellent Talents Supporting Program of the Ministry of Education. There are 4 innovative research groups supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), 8 innovative teams of the Ministry of Education, and one innovative team of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.