Sun Yat-sen University, originally known as Guangdong University, was founded in 1924 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen (also called Sun Zhongshan), a great democratic revolutionary leader of the 20th century. The University is located in Guangdong Province, an area neighboring Hong Kong and Macao, which is at the forefront of China's reform and opening up.Benefiting from its location near Hong Kong and Macao and the regional advantage of opening and economic development, the university has become an important base for training high-level talents, scientific research, providing services to society and inheriting cultural traditions.
Built on a solid multidisciplinary foundation of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medical sciences, and engineering, Sun Yat-sen University is propelled forward by the continuous pursuit of academic innovation. The University is equipped with a globally aware outlook, and has dedicated itself to being an institution that is “comprehensive, innovative, and open”. The University adheres to the socialist orientation of higher education, focusing on the fundamental task of nurturing virtue and talents. The goal of talent cultivation is to nurture students who have both ability and moral integrity, able to cultivate charisma and eager to serve their country. The basic guiding philosophy is to be oriented toward academic frontiers, oriented toward national major strategic needs, and oriented toward national and regional economic and social development. The coordinated development of five campuses in the three cities of Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen will jointly support the development of the entire University. The University is pushing forward the transformation from external development to internal development, the transformation from routine development to active development, and the transformation from a university with discrete advantages in humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and medical sciences to a university where humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medical sciences and engineering can integrate and develop while retaining their distinctive characteristics. Now, standing at a new starting point, Sun Yat-sen University strives to enter both the national first-tier of universities and the ranks of world-class elite universities, building a first-class socialist university with Chinese characteristics.