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Hunan University (HNU; 湖南大学) is a national public university in Yuelu, Changsha, Hunan, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. It is also a member in the BRICS Universities League.
Yuelu Academy was founded in the year 976, during the Song dynasty, as a Confucian shuyuan.
In 1903, during the final years of the Qing dynasty, the Hunan Institute of Higher Education was established.
In 1926, the name of the institution was then changed to Hunan Normal College, and then Hunan Public Polytechnic School, before finally arriving at the name Hunan University.
In 1937, the academy was transformed from a provincial university into a national university, renamed the National Hunan University, and designated by the Ministry of education, becoming the fifteenth national university.
From April 1938 to May 1941, the National Hunan University suffered serious losses and, made it difficult to run the school. During the Battle of Changsha, the National Hunan University was suspended.
In 1949, the name Hunan University was again adopted, and the calligraphy of "Hunan University" was written by Mao Zedong in 1950 as soon as the People's Republic of China was founded.
In 1959, Hunan University was officially restored after the national readjustment of higher education institutions.
In 1963, HNU was subordinated to the First Ministry of Machinery Industry.
In 1978, Hunan University's status as one of the 88 National Key Universities in China was reaffirmed.
In 1996, Hunan University became one of the universities sponsored by Project 211.
In 2000, Hunan University was selected as a member of Project 985.
In November 2010, the National Supercomputing Changsha Center was built on the Hunan University campus under the management and operation of Hunan University. It is the first National Supercomputing Center in Central China and the third of its kind apart from other two national centers situated in Tianjin and Shenzhen.
In 2011, HNU participated in the Excellence League, an alliance of 10 Chinese universities with a strong background in engineering.
In 2015, HNU joined the BRICS Universities League, a consortium of leading research universities from BRICS countries.
In 2017, Hunan University was listed in the Double First-Class Construction.
Hunan University is a national key university under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education of China and a member of Project 211 and Project 985, as well as the Double First Class University Plan. The administration is led by a CPC secretary and a president. The current secretary is Deng Wei, and the president is Duan Xianzhong.
It has the following colleges and departments:
There are more than 30,000 full-time students, including more than 20,800 undergraduates and more than 14,000 graduate students. Hunan University has started to recruit international students since 1990s and is one of the Project 985 universities in China to launch an international student program taught entirely in English.
As of 2025, Hunan University was ranked in the top 200 research universities in the world by several global university rankings such as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking and the CWTS Leiden Ranking.
Hunan University was ranked 259th worldwide in 2024 in terms of aggregate performance by the three widely observed university ranking (THE+ARWU+QS) as reported by the Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities.
Among its prominent alumni are
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