Xiamen University, which is one of the comprehensive universities directly affiliated with the Education Ministry, is located in the city of Xiamen in Fujian Province. It was founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, a well-known patriotic overseas Chinese leader, and is the first university in China to be founded by an overseas Chinese as well. In July in 1937, it was changed from private university into a state-run university. When the war of resistance against Japanese broke out in China, the university moved to Changting, a mountainous town in the west of Fujian Province, where it was operated for eight years and won a high reputation as “the best university in the south of China.” In 1946, it moved back to Xiamen. Then, in 1952 it became a comprehensive university embracing both arts and science. In 1963, it was designated as a state key university. In 1995, it was included in the list of the “211 Project” for the state key construction; in 2000, it became one of China’s higher-level universities designated for the state key construction of the “985 Project”.

Over the past eighty–eight years, as the result of following the school motto: Pursue Excellence, Strive for Perfection , Xiamen University has accumulated rich experience in offering its educational programs and has presented its distinctive features in running the programs. Equipped with a strong team of faculty and staff, Xiamen University, which provides a fairly complete range of programs of education, has become a first-class comprehensive university in China with extensive international influence. Since its founding, Xiamen University has produced more than 150,000 undergraduates and graduates for the country and over 60 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) have studied or worked at Xiamen University.
Xiamen University has a graduate school , 22 schools containing 60 departments and 10 research institutes and research centers. With 14 Doctoral degrees in first –class disciplines, and 17 Master degree in first-class disciplines, the university offers 82 undergraduate programs, 219 graduate programs, and 134 PhD programs. 14 subjects have been assessed and awarded as “the national key disciplines”. There are 15 Post doctoral research centers, 9 subjects of “national educational centers for talents”.5 first-class and 9 second-class national key disciplines.
Xiamen university has a high level team of faculty and staff including 2,383 full-time faculty and professional researchers , including 1322 professors and associate professors. of whom 21 are academicians of CAS and CAE Moreover, 10 faculty members of Xiamen University are seated on the State Council's Academic Degree Appraisal Committee. 12 have been listed in the "One-hundred plus One-thousand plus Ten-thousand Talent Project”; 66 have been included in the Ministry of Education's training program for the "Leading Figure for the New Century";27 have obtained the "Science Grant for National Outstanding Youth" from the state; There are 21 special and 9 speech professorships of “Yangtze Scholar” , 3 “National Innovation Research Team” and 3 “Education Ministry Innovation Group” .

The university now has a total enrollment of over37,000 full-time students on campus, including 20,466 undergraduates, 14,227 master students, 2,352 doctoral students, and over 2000 international students. In 2005,Xiamen Unversity received a straight-A score in the undergraduate level Teaching Appraisal organized by the Ministry of Education.

Xiamen University has set up over 140 research institutions, including 2 State Key Laboratories, 1 State Engineering Research Center, 5 Education Ministry Key Laboratories, and 5 state key research bases in humanities and social science.
6 research reports were published in the international Science and Nature journal, 2 scientific research findings won the Second Class Prize of National Natural Science Award over the last 5 years.? Xiamen University has strong potentiality in human and science research. Taiwan studies, Southeast Asian studies, economic studies, and accounting studies are at the highest tier among domestic universities.
Xiamen University has inter-university cooperative ties with over 150 institutions of higher education at home and abroad. Xiamen University has formally established multi-lateral cooperative relationship with seven other universities around the world by signing the Agreement on Global U7 Consortium in 2004. In 2005, there were 8 members of this group. Because of its especially favorable geographical location and advantageous human resources, it is the key university most actively engaged in cross-straits educational, scientific and cultural exchanges.
At present, Xiamen University’s 3 campuses cover over 600 hectares. With green hills behind and fronting the sea, Xiamen University is recognized as one of the most beautiful universities in China. Xiamen University has a constructed area of 1.4 million square meters and its libraries hold 4.60million volumes (including 1.5 million electronic volumes). The scope and level of its high-speed information network on campus is rated at the top of all universities in China and has become the one of the main injunctions of CERNET2.
Xiamen University is now making great strides towards its goal of "building a high-level university well-known both at home and abroad."

(The data presented above is as of March, 2009)