Xiamen University

Xiamen University in the Fujian province of China was the first university in the country founded by an overseas Chinese leader – entrepreneur and industrialist Tan Kah Kee based in Singapore who set up the university in 1921. The university is directly administered by the Chinese Ministry of Education and is highly rated nationally for subjects including journalism, chemistry and economics. Many children of foreign diplomats attend the university, partly due to the high reputation and prevalence of foreign professors. Out of the 40,000 full-time students on campus, more than 2,800 are international students. Chinese is taught in some programmes as a foreign language. The university collaborates with 270 other higher education institutions both in China and abroad. In the 27 schools of the universities there are 76 departments and 10 research institutions. In total, 83 different undergraduate programmes, 276 master’s programmes and 187 PhD programmes are on offer. The main campus is in the Siming District of Xiamen at the foothills of the mountains on Xiamen’s bay. Due to the landscape, and parks, the campus is a key tourist attraction in the area. Aside from the main campus, the university also has campuses in Xiang’an and Zhangzhou. As of 2015, Xiamen University has a campus in Malaysia, the first Chinese university to set up a campus overseas. University buildings and sites cover a total of 1.4 million square metres and the library system holds 4.48 million printed and electronic volumes. Famous alumni of the university include eminent economists, mathematicians, inventors, writers and singers.