Hefei University

Hefei University (HU), a full-time comprehensive university, is located in Hefei ， the capital city of Anhui Province. Established in 1980, it has 16 departments, 5 centers together with a further education college, offering 40 bachelor degree programs with a full-time student population totaling 12，527(as to December 2007) on two campuses ,the Downtown Campus (or Huangshan Road Campus) and the Nanyanhu Lake Campus.

The mission of HU is to target at “regionalization, practicability and internationalization” which aims to educate its students to become specialized professionals with practical knowledge and skills to meet the needs of regional job markets with the international perspectives and views.

Aiming to serve the regional economy HU holds on its philosophy “to nurture the students with morality by means of practical curriculum and teaching systems”. And its motto for the students is to become specialists with “Morality and knowledge, mind and hand”. HU has always been encouraging teaching reforms so as to equip its graduates with practical competence and skills in future careers. In the recent years “N+2 Assessment System” has been introduced, by which the students are evaluated in the process of their academic learning together with the finals at each semester. The “9-Semester System” is particularly designed in which the sophomores are required to have a single semester for cognitive learning before their further academic studies in order to strengthen their sense of abilities required for the professional career in their further academic learning.

HU has a rich personnel resource with experienced professors and efficient administrative staff to ensure the quality of its graduates to serve the mission of the University. To serve the regional economy in order to gain support from the local government for HU development, HU encourages its faculty to participate in serving the construction and development of regional economy so as to nurture its students with the updated science and technology combined with the practice. Its professors are also involved in natural and liberal science research programs at provincial, national and international levels. The prizes have been awarded for their professional excellence and efficiency, and corresponding papers and books published in Chinese, English and German.

Young as it is, HU has been contributing to mutual growth and international cultural cooperation through exchanges with universities around the world. HU has been engaged in various programs with Germany for faculty training, exchange of students and joint construction for some of its departments since early 1980s. HU now has 9 sister universities in Germany，mainly with the applied science universities to go with its mission, and programs of student exchange and faculty training have been expanding with some dual degree programs since 2000. HU started the similar programs in Korea since the late 1990s as well and so far it has 7 sister universities in Korea with exchange programs for students and faculty and dual degree programs covering in language, tourism, computer science and Chinese education.

Cultural diversity is one of the distinctive features of HU. Each year some 50 foreign students are admitted into HU for Chinese language and culture leaning. And joint workshops and internship/thesis writing are also arranged on the campus for the international students from the sister universities. International seminars on education, rural development, tourism management and environmental protection were hosted with the participants from Germany, Korea, Japan, Singapore and other countries. In addition to Germany and Korea, HU also has cooperation relations with universities in the United States, Austria, Thailand, Britain and Spain as well. International professors from Germany, Korea, the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan , etc. are recruited to teach and research on the campus each year to create a multicultural environment.

HU takes the overall development of its students as prime priority besides academic learning. Various clubs, organized and administrated by the students, are sponsored by HU to meet the physical, moral, cultural and social interests and needs of the students. The students are both intelligent in academic studies and active in sports and other events on and out of campus. Fencing and robots designs enjoy prestigious reputation in China. The students are awarded in the National Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest. The Foreign language Corners (English, German, Japanese Korean ) is well known in Hefei as well and attracts foreign language learners. The students present their social and civic responsibilities by volunteering work in local communities and rural areas. For years the graduates of HU have been well-accepted for their honesty and dependability with practical competence and skills.