Xiamen University was founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, the well-known patriotic overseas Chinese leader. It was the first university in China founded by an overseas Chinese. At present it is the only university in any of five special economic zones and is one of China's higher-level universities designated for the state key construction of the “211 Project” and the “985 Project”. Over the past 93 years, as the result of following the school motto: Pursue Excellence, Strive for Perfection, Xiamen University has accumulated rich experience in offering its educational programs and has presented its distinctive features in running the programs. Equipped with a strong team of faculty and staff, Xiamen University, which provides a fairly complete range of programs of education, has become a first-class comprehensive university in China with extensive international influence. Since its founding, Xiamen University has produced more than 200,000 undergraduates and graduates for the country and over 60 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) have studied or worked at Xiamen University. Xiamen University has a graduate school, 27 schools containing 66 departments and 10 research institutes and research centres. With 31 Doctoral degrees in first –class disciplines, and 50 Master degrees in first-class disciplines, the university offers 84 undergraduate programs, 276 graduate programs, and 187 PhD programs. 14 subjects have been assessed and awarded as “the national key disciplines”. There are 26 Post doctoral research centres, 9 subjects of “national educational centres for talents”, 5 first-class and 9 second-class national key disciplines. Xiamen University has a high level team of faculty and staff including 2,678 full-time faculty and professional researchers, including 1713 professors and associate professors of whom 23 are academicians of CAS and CAE Moreover, 10 faculty members of Xiamen University are seated on the State Council's Academic Degree Appraisal Committee. 43 professors have been under the National “ Thousand of Overseas Top Talents Scheme”; 14 have been listed in the "One-hundred plus One-thousand plus Ten-thousand Talent Project”; 151 have been included in the Ministry of Education's training program for the "Leading Figure for the New Century"; 38 have obtained the "Science Grant for National Outstanding Youth" from the state; There are 15 special and 14 speech professorships of “Yangtze Scholar”, 5 “National Innovation Research Team” and 7 “Education Ministry Innovation Group” . The university now has a total enrolment of over 40,000 full-time students on campus, including 19570 undergraduates, 17,490 master students, 2,919 doctoral students, and over 2800 international students. In 2005, Xiamen University received a straight-A score in the undergraduate level Teaching Appraisal organized by the Ministry of Education. Xiamen University has set up over 150 research institutions, including 4 State Key Laboratories, 1 State Engineering Research Centre, 5 Education Ministry Key Laboratories, and 5 state key research bases in humanities and social science. 40 research reports were published in internationally high-level academic journals such as Science, Nature, the Lancet, etc. 4 scientific research findings won the Second Class Prize of National Natural Science Award over the last 5 years. Xiamen University has strong potentiality in human and science research. Taiwan studies, Southeast Asian studies, economic studies, and accounting studies are at the highest tier among domestic universities. Xiamen University has inter-university cooperative ties with over 270 institutions of higher education at home and abroad. Xiamen University has formally established multi-lateral cooperative relationship with seven other universities around the world by signing the Agreement on Global U8 Consortium in 2004. In 2005, there were 8 members of this group. Xiamen University vigorously promotes the campaign of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The university has co-established 15 Confucius Institutes with universities in North America, Europe, Africa, etc. Because of its especially favourable geographical location and advantageous human resources, it is the key university most actively engaged in cross-straits educational, scientific and cultural exchanges. At present, Xiamen University’s 3 campuses cover over 600 hectares. With green hills behind and fronting the sea, Xiamen University is recognized as one of the most beautiful universities in China. Xiamen University has a constructed area of 1.9 million square meters and its libraries hold 4.48 million volumes (including 39,204 gigabytes electronic volumes). The scope and level of its high-speed information network on campus is rated at the top of all universities in China and has become the one of the main injunctions of CERNET2. Xiamen University is now making great strides towards its goal of "building a high-level university well-known both at home and abroad."