Hefei University

Hefei University was “born through reform, grew through openness and developed through innovation.” It has consistently maintained its identity as a local, application-oriented and international university, pursuing a distinctive path toward becoming a high-level applied university. It has been described as a “front-runner among China’s leading applied undergraduate universities,” a “successful model of practical Sino-German cooperation,” and a “cradle of engineers for Hefei.” Its predecessor, Hefei United University, was founded in 1980 and admitted undergraduates from the outset. In 1985, the Anhui Provincial Government and the government of Lower Saxony signed a joint development agreement, making it a demonstration university of applied sciences jointly supported by China and Germany. In 2002, it merged with Hefei College of Education and Hefei Normal School to form Hefei University, then named Hefei Xueyuan in Chinese. It was authorized to award master’s degrees in 2018. On November 30, 2023, the Ministry of Education formally approved its change of Chinese name from Hefei Xueyuan to Hefei Daxue.

The university covers nearly 1500 mu, with 690900 square meters of buildings and 17282 full-time students. It has 1230 faculty and staff, including 1090 full-time teachers. Among full-time teachers, 48.7% hold doctorates and 42.3% have senior professional titles. Its 55 undergraduate programs cover 7 disciplinary categories. It has 10 national first-class undergraduate program development sites and 11 national first-class undergraduate courses. Three programs have passed Ministry of Education engineering education accreditation, 2 have passed second-level teacher education accreditation, and 1 has passed Yangtze River Delta New Liberal Arts Education program accreditation. It has 18 master’s degree authorizations and 4 key disciplines at provincial or ministerial level or above. Engineering ranks in the top 1% worldwide in ESI. It is a provincially prioritized institution for development toward doctoral degree awarding status, an Anhui university with distinctive applied strengths, a pilot university for an Anhui School of Excellence in Engineering, and a university with distinctive research and innovation in Anhui’s new energy vehicle industry.

The university continues to deepen reform in applied talent development and serves as a demonstration benchmark for the transformation and development of applied universities. It emphasizes university-enterprise cooperation and integration of industry and education, exploring a talent development model integrating academic programs, employment and industry, and a localized path for dual-system higher education. It has received first prizes in national teaching achievement awards in two consecutive rounds, as well as honors including the Huang Yanpei Vocational Education Outstanding School Award. Its reform cases have received priority cultivation from the provincial comprehensive reform commission and have been promoted across the province. In 2024, the Office of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform published “Hefei University Explores Dual-System Education Reform through Four Transformations and Four Orientations” in Reform Information Exchange, creating a positive demonstration effect. It has 8 provincially approved modern industry schools. The Volkswagen School and New Energy Modern Industry School were selected for Anhui’s Double Distinctive development initiative; the Transport Modern Industry School and Volkswagen School were recognized as Yangtze River Delta G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor industry schools. The Sino-German Dual-System Applied Talent Training Base project was approved as a pilot demonstration project by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The university is a nationally recognized institution for exemplary innovation and entrepreneurship experience, one of the first institutions to develop national innovation and entrepreneurship education practice bases, and a model institution for graduate employment work in Anhui. Its graduate employment rate remains among the highest at the province’s universities. More than 70% of graduates stay in Anhui and 50% stay in Hefei, where they are highly regarded by enterprises. It has received incentives in the province’s comprehensive dynamic assessment of university employment work for consecutive years, and its graduate military recruitment work received an excellent rating in the provincial university recruitment assessment for two consecutive years. The Ministry of Education has described its experience as the “Anhui phenomenon and Hefei model.”

The university actively strengthens education’s contribution to development and is an important support for high-quality local development. Responding to local needs, it continues to improve the distribution of applied disciplines and degree authorizations, align academic programs with industry development, and strengthen talent recruitment and development. Two scholars were included in the annual impact list of the world’s top 2% scientists. It has 8 provincial or ministerial research platforms and close cooperation with more than 60 enterprises and institutions, including iFLYTEK. It jointly established the Anhui Research Center for New Structural Economics, a high-level think tank, with Peking University and the Hefei Municipal Government. It actively participates in work such as the Hefei Industrial Research Institute, supporting the development of high-level industrial think tanks. Funding for research and local services grew from RMB 90 million in 2021 to nearly RMB 200 million in 2025. The value of its outward technology contracts ranks among the highest at universities in Anhui. It has appeared among Anhui’s top one hundred institutions for invention patents for 10 consecutive years, and its provincially assigned targeted assistance work has received a “good” performance rating for 8 consecutive years.

The university continues to demonstrate its international character and is a prominent example of Anhui’s international educational exchange and cooperation. Hefei University has 41 years of international exchange and cooperation experience. It has been designated a Sino-German educational cooperation demonstration base, one of Anhui’s first international exchange and cooperation bases, a provincial advanced institution in educational foreign affairs, and one of Anhui’s first Chinese language education bases. It has partnerships with 76 overseas universities in 22 countries and regions and has signed a cooperation agreement with the German University Consortium for International Cooperation (DHIK), expanding cooperation from talent development into research. On April 15, 2026, Hefei University’s International College was officially inaugurated as its first and the province’s second Chinese-foreign cooperative education institution. Anhui Governor Wang Qingxian and Lower Saxony Minister-President Olaf Lies jointly unveiled its plaque. The university has held 19 Sino-German Applied Higher Education Symposia and 25 Sino-German Industrial Design WORKSHOP events, among other international activities, with considerable brand influence. Its jointly established Confucius Institute in Germany was personally inaugurated by then German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Five of its foreign experts have received the Chinese Government Friendship Award and 13 the Huangshan Friendship Award. Its international student education has successfully completed reaccreditation for the quality of higher education for international students in China.

The university maintains a socialist direction in education and is a strong base for the Party’s comprehensive leadership. At the end of 2025, the Communist Party of China Hefei University’s First Congress of Party Representatives was successfully held. It elected new Party Committee and discipline inspection commission leadership teams and set “123486” goals and tasks, defining the development path for the next 5-10 years. The university is a development institution in the second round of national model Party branches and the fourth round of national benchmark Party-building schools or departments; an independent pilot university for the Ministry of Education’s one-stop student community comprehensive management model; one of Anhui’s first pilot universities for developing university online ideological and political work centers; one of the province’s first demonstration universities for Party-building work under cultivation; a pilot institution for Anhui’s comprehensive reform of education by all staff, throughout the whole process and across all aspects; a provincial pilot institution for comprehensive reform of moral education mechanisms; and a pilot university for Anhui’s Communist Youth League recommendation of outstanding members for Party membership. It has 1 national benchmark school or department, 4 national model Party branches, 1 national studio for university teacher Party branch secretaries who lead in both Party-building and academic work, and 1 national “Strengthening the Nation” project for such secretaries. It has received honors including the National May 1 Labor Certificate, National Civilized Campus, National Demonstration School for Law-Based Governance, one of Anhui’s first Green Schools, and Anhui Advanced Collective in Poverty Alleviation.

As the youngest university named after a provincial capital, Hefei University is in a critical and rising phase of high-quality substantive development. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, it will fulfill its founding mission of educating people for the Party and cultivating talent for the country and implement the strategy of building a strong education system. Driven by reform of the dual-system model for developing high-quality applied talent, it takes service to local development as its responsibility, actively pursues Double Distinctive development, and continually strengthens its capabilities and influence. It aims to become a high-level applied university leading nationally and influential internationally, serve as a front-runner and new benchmark for high-quality development among China’s applied universities, and make new and greater contributions to Anhui’s chapter in Chinese modernization. (The above data are as of May 2026.)