Excellence Scholarship Program

About the university

Central South University, located in Changsha, Hunan Province, is a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, a central government-administered university, and jointly established by the Ministry of Education, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, and Hunan Province. It is one of the first batch of high-level universities under the national "211 Project" and "985 Project" jointly built by the ministry and province, a Class A world-class university construction institution, and a second-round "Double First-Class" construction university. It has been selected into the Ministry of Education's "Strong Foundation Plan", "2011 Plan", and the education and training programs for outstanding engineers, outstanding physicians, and outstanding legal talents. It is one of the first five universities in China to pilot eight-year medical education (combined bachelor's and doctoral programs), one of the first high-level public health college construction units, the first university to train "integrated command and technology" active-duty military officers for master's degrees, one of the first batch of "National High-Level University Public-Sponsored Graduate Programs", a national excellent engineer college construction university, and a member of the Medical "Double First-Class" Construction Alliance. Central South University was formed in April 2000 through the merger of the former Hunan Medical University, Changsha Railway Institute, and Central South University of Technology. The former Central South University of Technology originated from the Central South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, founded in 1952; the former Changsha Railway Institute originated from the Central South Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, founded in 1953; and the former Hunan Medical University originated from the Xiangya Medical School, founded in 1914, which was one of the earliest Western medical schools in China. As of September 2025, the university has six campuses: Yuelu Mountain, Lunan, Xiaoxiang, Kaifu, Xinglin, and Tianxin, with a property area of 3.169 million square meters. It has 32 secondary colleges, three large tertiary-level A general hospitals and the Xiangya Stomatological Hospital, six non-directly affiliated hospitals, 104 undergraduate programs (89 for enrollment), 32 postdoctoral research stations, 44 first-level doctoral degree authorization points, 14 professional doctoral degree authorization points, 48 first-level master's degree authorization points, and 31 professional master's degree authorization points. The university has 5,926 faculty and staff members and over 64,000 full-time students.