Fudan Campus Gate

Ma Xiang-bo, a notable modern Chinese history educator, founded Fudan University in 1905 as Fudan Public School. The word “Fudan” stemmed from two Chinese characters of Fu and Dan that has a literal meaning of heavenly light shines day after day.

In 1911, the school was closed for nearly a year as it served as the headquarters of the Guangfu Army during the Xinhai Revolution. The school started to offer undergraduate programs in 1917 and changed its name to Private Fudan University. From 1917 to 1937 the president of the university was Li Deng-hui. Consistently rising enrollment at the institution occurred as it expanded into a developed university. Three schools were established: Arts, Sciences, and Business, a division of secondary education, and a preparatory school. After modification to its educational system in 1929, the university established four new academic departments: education, law, journalism, and civil administration. In total, the institution had 17 academic departments.

By the year 1937, the university was comprised of four schools of education: Business, Arts, Law, and Sciences. The schools included the academic departments, two schools for compulsory education, a secondary school, and an experimental secondary school. At this time, the university became one of southeast China’s most valuable academic research and higher education institutions. Also, in 1937, Fudan University moved to Beibei, Chongqing, the inland city and later the country’s temporary capital.

In 1941, the decision to make the university into a public institution was agreed upon by the Highest Executive Authority of the National Government of the Republic of China and Wu Nan-xuan became president of the school. Fudan University was then renamed National Fudan University. In 1946, the university moved back to Shanghai.

In 1949, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, National Fudan University became Fudan University to show that all universities governed by the new socialist state would be public institutions. The university developed into one of the national elite institutions of higher learning.

Fudan Law Building

Since the establishment of New China, Fudan University has been granted three successful changes of expansion and development. The first developmental time period was in 1952, when postsecondary institutions throughout China went through complete modification and reorganization. Fudan eliminated its departments of applied disciplines and Arts and Science departments from at least 10 other eastern China universities were incorporated into the university. The university also revitalized its faculty with the addition of new members including Lu He-fu, Su Bu-qing, Tan Jia-zhen, and Chen Jian-gong. The second large development period for Fudan stemmed from the first twenty years of the Reform and Opening-up Policy. Fudan University developed into a more academically comprehensive institution by incorporating a larger array of academic subjects including social sciences, the humanities, management, technology, and management. The school also strived to become a more affirmative and insightful global influence. The third and last major expansion of Fudan University was its official union with Shanghai Medical University in 2000. This merger enabled the institution to house its own college for medical sciences and lead Fudan toward its goal of becoming a world leading university.