Shandong University (SDU)

Shandong University (SDU) is a public comprehensive university in Shandong, China. It is one of the largest universities in China by student population (57,500 full-time students in 2009) and is supported directly by the national government. Moreover, it was the first university to be established and run in accordance with a chartered constitution. Shandong University provides one of the largest ranges of academic disciplines in China. It has at present 13 general disciplines for undergraduate and graduate education, namely philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, military science, management, and fine arts. The university currently has 4 affiliated hospitals, 3 non-subordinate affiliated hospitals and 11 teaching hospitals. It also has a teaching and administrative staff of 10,200 (including those at the Weihai Campus and the 3 affiliated hospitals included). Its full-time student population totals up to 60,000, of which 41,437 are undergraduates, 16,607 are postgraduates and 2,456 are international students. It also has an excellent faculty team of 1,107 professors, including 907 Ph.D. supervisors.

Present-day Shandong University is the result of multiple mergers as well as splits and restructurings that have involved more than a dozen academic institutions over time. The oldest of Shandong University’s precursor institutions, 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 derives its official founding date from the Imperial Shandong University established in Jinan in November 1901 as the second modern national university in the country.

Shandong University has seven campuses, all but one of which are located in the provincial capital city of Jinan. A campus to the northeast of the port city of Qingdao is under construction. The university has been classified as a National Key University by the Chinese Ministry of Education since 1960. It has been included in major national initiatives seeking to enhance the international competitiveness of the top-tier universities in China such as Project 985 and Project 211.

Shandong University offers master and doctoral degree programs in all major academic disciplines covering the humanities, science and engineering, as well as medicine.

The growth of the university over the years has seen SDU rise to the forefront of many fields in China. In the 1930s and 1950s, when Shandong University was located in Qingdao, it was the home to many nationally famous scholars who paved the way for great success especially in the fields of literature and history. Up to this day, Shandong University is well-known for its strong liberal arts programs, and published the highly reputable academic journal Literature, History & Philosophy. These two periods also laid a good foundation for the university in natural sciences, enabling it to find itself among the noted institutions in China. Since the merger at the end of the last century, the university’s newly-developed disciplines of financial mathematics, crystal materials, condensed matter physics, colloid and surface chemistry, micro-biology, machinery, material science, cardiovascular functional recovery, new drug manufacturing, and classical Chinese philosophy have all risen to the first-class level within the country, and some are even known abroad.

Academic & Department

• 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


• School of Environmental Science and Engineering


• School of Fine Arts


• School of Foreign Languages and Literature


• School of History and Culture


• School of Information Science and Engineering


• School of Law


• School of Life Science


• School of Literature and Journalism


• School of Marxist Theory Education


• School of Materials Science and Engineering


• School of Mathematics and System Sciences


• School of Mechanical Engineering


• School of Medicine


• School of Nursing


• School of Pharmacy


• School of Philosophy and Social Development


• School of Physical Education


• School of Physics


• School of Political Science and Public Administration


• School of Public Health


• Taishan College (honor school)


• Nishan College (honor school)


• General Study Program