Shandong University

Shandong University (山东大学; SDU) is a public university in Jinan, Shandong, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.

Shandong University derives its official founding date from the Imperial Shandong University (官立山東大學堂), which established in Jinan in November 1901 on the request of Yuan Shikai, then Governor of Shandong, as the second modern national university in the country. The precursor institution of Shandong University Medical School, Cheeloo University, was founded by American and English mission agencies in the late 19th century as Tengchow College of Liberal Arts in Penglai. Tengchow College was the first modern institution of higher learning in China.

Shandong University has eight campuses, all but two of which are located in the provincial capital city of Jinan. The rest are located in Weihai and Qingdao respectively.

Shandong University is constantly ranked the best university in Shandong province, and one of the top-ranked universities in the People's Republic of China. It is classified as a Double First Class University and was formerly part of both the Project 985 and Project 211 national key initiatives. Shandong University is among the Chinese universities with the most comprehensive range of academic disciplines, representing a typical comprehensive university that covers all major fields of study except military science.

As of 2024, twenty of its disciplines are ranked among the top 1% worldwide according to the ESI (Essential Science Indicators) rankings, with five disciplines ranked in the top 0.1%. The university has also signed intercollegiate cooperation agreements with more than 300 universities and institutions in over 30 countries and regions.

History

Traditional learning in Shandong (1733–1901)

The Luoyuan Academy (Chinese: 泺源书院; pinyin: Luoyuán Shūyuàn) was established in

Jinan in 1733 by an imperial edict from the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The governor of Shandong, Yue Jun (simplified Chinese: 岳浚; traditional Chinese: 岳濬; pinyin: Yuè Jùn), received 1,000 taels of silver (approximately 37 kg) to fund the establishment of the academy. The name "Luoyuan" (literally "source of the Luo [River]") refers to the original location of the academy near the Baotu Spring. The academy was dedicated to teaching the Chinese classics to the sons of the gentry. Scholars affiliated with the academy include: Bi Yuan (畢沅, 1730–1797), Sang Tiaoyuan (桑调元, 1695–1771), Shen Qiyuan (沈起元, 1685–1763), He Shaoji (何紹基, 1799–1873), Kuang Yuan (匡源, 1815–1881), Wang Zhihan (王之翰, 1821–1850), Liu Yaochun (刘耀春), Zhu Xuedu (朱学笃, 1826–1892), and Miao Quansun (缪荃孙, 1844–1919). In 1881, the American Presbyterian missionaries John Murray (Chinese: 莫约翰; pinyin: Mò Yuēhàn) and Stephen A. Hunter (Chinese: 洪士提反; pinyin: Hóngshì Tífǎn) attempted to purchase a property adjacent to the Luoyuan Academy for use as a chapel. This led to a violent reaction when on July 13, 1881, literati from the academy incited an attack on the property. The incident, known as the "Jinan Missionary Incident" (Chinese: 济南教案; pinyin: Jìnán Jiào'àn), had considerable diplomatic repercussions for the relationship between the Qing Dynasty and the United States. The Luoyuan Academy was rebuilt in 1896 to become the largest institution of its kind in Shandong. Five years later (in 1901) it was replaced by the newly founded Imperial Shandong College which took over its campus (today the site of the Provincial Bureau of Statistics on Spring City Road (Chinese: 泉城路; pinyin: Quán Chéng Lù)).

19th-century precursors

The earliest precursor institutions that would later be fused into Shandong University were founded by American and English mission agencies: In early January 1864, Calvin W. Mateer, an American Presbyterian missionary, and his wife Julia Brown Mateer, arrived in the recently opened treaty port of Dengzhou (Chinese: 登州; Wade–Giles: Tengchow, now Zhifu, Yantai) in the area of the present-day city of Penglai on the north-eastern coast of Shandong Peninsula. Their journey had begun in New York on July 3, 1863, had taken them around the Cape of Good Hope to Shanghai, and had ended with a shipwreck off the coast of Yantai. In the autumn of 1864, the Mateers opened an elementary school for boys, which was called Mengyang Educational Society (Chinese: 蒙养学堂; pinyin: Méngyǎng Xuétáng), in a Guanyin temple that had been sold to them since there were insufficient funds for its upkeep as a temple. The school's first class consisted of six boarders and two day pupils. The school was enlarged to accommodate 30 boarders and divided into primary and high school sections in 1869. The high school became known as the Wenhui Guan (Chinese: 文会馆; pinyin: Wénhuì Guǎn). The Tengchow College of Liberal Arts was formally established in 1882, i.e., at a time when the school had been operated as a primary and high school for 18 years already. By 1889, enrollment in the college had grown to 100 students. The six-year curriculum included algebra, geometry and conic sections, trigonometry and measurement, surveying and navigation, analytical geometry and mathematical physics, calculus, as well as astronomy. Religion also featured prominently in the curriculum as well as in daily life at Tengchow College. The college soon enjoyed a reputation for its high standards of academic excellence. When W.A.P Martin hired young professors of Western learning for the Imperial University of Peking (the precursor of present-day Peking University), 12 out of 13 young professors hired were graduates of Tengchow College of Liberal Arts. In 1884, shortly after the formal establishment of Tengchow College of Liberal Arts, British Baptists established Tsingchow Boys' Boarding School in Qingzhou, also located in northern Shandong, but not directly on the coast.

Reputation and ranking

Shandong University was one of the Project 985 universities in China to appear in the world's top 500 universities in the first global university ranking in 2003, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities. The joint THE-QS World University Rankings 2005 ranked Shandong University =282nd in the world. In the general university ranking performed by the Chinese University Alumni Association (CUAA), Shandong University ranked number 14 among Top 100 Chinese universities in 2010. It reached the 11th highest score in the "teaching" category of this ranking. Shandong University's engineering programs have also been ranked number 15 nationwide by the Research Center of Management and Science in China (2008). For the last 10 years, Shandong University has been continuously ranked among the top 10 universities nationwide in terms of the number of publications included in the Science Citation Index. Research at Shandong University is deemed particular strong in the areas of physics, mathematics, and medicine. A ranking by Mines ParisTech based on the number of alumni holding CEO position in Fortune Global 500 companies placed Shandong University first within China.

The 2024 CWTS Leiden Ranking ranked Shandong University at 15th in the world based on their publications for the time period 2019–2022. In 2024, it ranked 59th among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings. Shandong University ranked 18th among the leading universities globally in the Nature Index 2025 Annual Tables by Nature Research, that measure the high-quality research published in 82 high-quality science journals. The Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the "Shanghai Ranking", placed the university 101st-150th in the world. Shandong University ranked 168th worldwide and 36th in Asia in the CWUR World University Ranking 2025.

Administration

At the top level, Shandong University is governed by a president (Chinese: 校长; pinyin: Xiàozhǎng) and a cabinet of vice presidents (Chinese: 副校长; pinyin: Fù Xiàozhǎng), each with a specific portfolio of responsibilities (e.g., research, international exchange). Central administrative departments (e.g., for finance, human resources, research, or international affairs) are led by a director (Chinese: 处长; pinyin: Chùzhǎng). Below the central administration, the university is organized by subject area into 31 faculties that are referred to as "Schools" (Chinese: 学院; pinyin: Xuéyuàn) as well as a graduate school. Each school is headed by a dean (Chinese: 院长; pinyin: Yuànzhǎng) and may be divided further into departments headed by a chairperson. Academic programs are offered in 11 main disciplines: philosophy, economics, law, literature, history, natural sciences, engineering, management, medicine, education, and military science. There are 104 undergraduate degree programs, 209 master's degree programs, and 127 doctoral degree programs. In addition, there are seven professional master's degree programs in law, business management, engineering, clinical medicine, public health, dentistry, and public administration.

The student population is around 57,500 full-time students, of which 14,500 are postgraduate students, and over 1,000 are foreign students (data from 2009).

The major research efforts at Shandong University are organized in 34 national, provincial, and ministerial key academic disciplines, two national key research labs, 21 provincial and ministerial key research labs, a national engineering and technology promotion center, 10 provincial technology research centers, three national basic scientific research and personnel development bases; three social science key research bases approved by Ministry of Education; and three national fundamental science personnel development bases. Among its faculty are 23 members (including adjuncts) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Three general hospitals, including Qilu Hospital, and 12 teaching hospitals are affiliated with the university. The university library houses a collection of over 3,550,000 items.

Schools and departments

• School of Business Administration
• School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
• School of Civil Engineering
• School of Computer Science and Technology
• School of Control Science and Engineering
• School of Dentistry
• School of Economics
• School of Electrical Engineering
• School of Energy and Power Engineering

Campuses

Shandong University has a total of seven campuses. All but two of them are located in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong Province. Together they cover an area of 3.8 km2. There are two campuses outside Jinan, one is located in Qingdao, and another is in Weihai.

Central Campus

Construction of the Central Campus commenced in 1959, about a year after the university had moved back from Qingdao to Jinan and during a time that coincided with the Great Leap Forward, the Great Chinese Famine, as well as a devastating flood of the Yellow River (in July 1959). The Central Campus houses the central administration (in the Mingde Building, Chinese: 明德楼; pinyin: Míngdé Lóu), the main university library, a large dining hall, as well as student dormitories. The central campus is home to the schools of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Economics, History and Culture, Marxism–Leninism, Life Sciences, Mathematics and System Science, Literature and Journalism and Communication, as well as Information Science and Engineering. One of Shandong University's hotels (Chinese: 山东大学学术交流中心; pinyin: Shāndōng Dàxué Xuéshù Jiāoliú Zhōngxīn, or for short: "Xueren Dasha", Chinese: 学人大厦; pinyin: Xuérén Dàshà) is also located on the central campus. The roads within the Central Campus are named after concepts from Confucianism.

Hongjialou Campus

The Hongjialou Campus derives its name from the Hongjialou Square and is located immediately to the north and east of the Square and the Sacred Heart Cathedral (Chinese: 洪家楼耶稣圣心主教座堂; pinyin: Hóngjiālóu Yēsū Shèngxīn Zhǔjiào Zuòtáng). The first construction on the campus dates back to 1936 when it was used for the Jinan Yifan Girls' Middle School (Chinese: 懿范女子中学; pinyin: Yìfàn Nǚzǐ Zhōngxué) that was operated by Franciscan sisters (Chinese: 艾修女; pinyin: ài xiū nǚ) of the Archdiocese of Jinan. In 1948, the Yifan Girls' Middle School was combined with Liming Middle School (Chinese: 黎明中学; pinyin: Límíng Zhōngxué) and its former campus became part of the Shandong Agricultural Institute that used it until 1958, when the Institute moved to Tai'an. In October 1958, the Hongjialou Campus became Shandong University's first Campus after the university moved back to Jinan from Qingdao. The Hongjialou Campus houses the Schools of Law, Foreign Languages and Literature as well as Fine Arts.

Baotuquan Campus

The Baotuquan Campus is the former campus of Cheeloo University and was established in 1909. The design for the campus was made by Perkins, Fellows and Hamilton, an architectural firm from Chicago renowned for its school buildings in the "Prairie School" style. The American architects attempted to include Chinese architectural features into the design of the buildings on the new Cheeloo University campus in Jinan. They did, however, mistakenly assume that the roof shape was the only distinguishing feature of Chinese architecture. As a result, the buildings feature Chinese-style roofs on buildings that lack the matching support elements such as wooden Dougong brackets that characterize Chinese architecture. Historical buildings on the Baotuquan Campus include the Bergen Science Hall (Chinese: 柏尔根楼; pinyin: Bǎi'ěrgēn Lóu, formerly for Chemistry and Biology), the Mateer Science Hall (formerly for Physics and Physiology), the McCormick Hall, and the Alumni Gate (the former main entrance, construction completed on June 17, 1924). Baotuquan Campus houses the schools of public health, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and medicine.

International cooperation

Shandong University has established an international network for educational cooperation and has signed exchange agreements with over 70 universities from over 50 countries. Shandong also is associated in a sister school for American Middle Schools and Junior Highs, including Scofield Magnet Middle School. Among its faculty are international researchers and scholars, who either visit for a short term (less than 1 month, 160 visitors in 2009), a medium term (less than half a year, 70 visitors in 2009), or for the long term (more than half a year, 80 visitors in 2009). Of the 80 long-term international faculty members, 30 language scholars teach languages such as English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, and Russian. The others are active in disciplines such as philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics, law, international politics and economics, as well as Chinese classics and traditional philosophy.

About 1500 international students from about 40 countries come to study at Shandong University each year. An international student population numbering more than 1000 can be found on campus at any given time during the semester. Most of these international students come from Asian and African countries, but there are also students from Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Since 1980, Shandong University has received more than 10,000 students from over 60 countries. Popular study subjects are Chinese language and culture, but also economics and medicine. Furthermore, Shandong University participates in international short term exchange programs and receives approximately 2500 international student visitors for such programs per year.

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