Xiamen University was founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, the well-known overseas Chinese leader honored by Comrade Mao Zedong as the "Flag of the Overseas Chinese and Glory of the Nation." It was the first university in the history of modern Chinese education to be founded by an overseas Chinese. At present it is the only key comprehensive university directly affiliated with the Education Ministry in any of the five special economic zones, and it is one of the higher-level universities designated for the cross-century key construction. Located in the southern part of Xiamen Island, the university has an area of 145.9 hectares in picturesque surroundings, with its campus running along the seashore beneath scenic mountains. At present, Xiamen University has also begun construction of its Zhangzhou campus, with an area of 171 hectares, 3.5 nautical miles across the bay from the present campus.

When the university was first founded, Tan Kah Kee chose the following for its motto: Pursue excellence, Strive for perfection. Over the past eighty years, as the result of painstaking efforts by several generations of teachers and students, Xiamen University has accumulated rich experience in running its programs. It follows the fine tradition of "loving the motherland and the university," and in particular has the characteristics of being a university "in the Special Economic Zone on the coast near Taiwan and with close ties with overseas Chinese." It enjoys a fine reputation both at home and abroad. In the past 80 years since its founding, it has graduated over 80,000 students, and over 50 academicians from both the Social and Natural Science Academies of China have studied or worked in Xiamen University.

During the War of resistance against Japan, Xiamen University was forced to move to Changting, a mountainous town in west Fujian Province. In 1946 it returned to the Xiamen campus. In 1952, it was defined as a comprehensive university for social and natural sciences. In 1963 it was designated as one of the key universities in China.

China's reform and opening to the outside world in 1979 marked the starting point of a new period of development for Xiamen University. National leaders such as Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Li Ruihuan, Li Lanqing, Qian Qichen, and others have paid close attention to Xiamen University's development, and have visited the university personally. In the early 1980s, the university revamped its mission statement: "Base itself on the special economic zone, face the whole country, take full advantage of its superiority, and gain initiative in providing service." As a result, the university has formed a unique and successful partnership with state and local governments. In June 1995 and in April 1997 respectively, the "211 Project" construction of Xiamen University passed preliminary inspection at ministerial level, and obtained the project approval and passed the examination by experts. It has been designated as "China's key university, one that is internationally influential, operates on a high level, offers a fairly complete range of disciplines, maintains its own characteristic way of running the school, and possesses a superior staff in basic research and teaching." In July 2001, the "211 Project" construction of Xiamen University passed the national acceptance inspection with an excellent score.

Since 1986, Xiamen University had been running its Graduate School on trial. And in March 1996, the university became one of the first universities in China to be approved by the Education Ministry to set up a graduate school, indicating that Xiamen University has become an important base for educating high-level personnel for the country. Xiamen University has 17 colleges that contain 34 departments and 61 sections for undergraduates. It has thus become a comprehensive university providing a fairly complete range of programs of education in humanities, social science, natural science, engineering and technology, management, art education, and medical science. It now confers masters' degrees in 108 subjects and doctoral degrees in 59 subjects, which include 7 subjects of first class. At present, the university has 13 state key disciplines. Post-doctoral research centers have been set up in the 7 first-class disciplines, and 4 sections have been designated as national centers for education. The university has 8 disciplines listed among the state key construction items of the first-phase "211 Project," and 10 disciplines listed as the provincial key disciplines.

Xiamen University currently has a teaching and administrative staff of 4,171 members, of whom 1,587 are full-time teachers and professional researchers. Among these are 8 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 8 members seated on the State Council Academic Degree Appraisal Committee, and 237 doctoral supervisors, 13 of whom have been awarded the title of "National Expert with Outstanding Contribution to the Country." The average age of teachers is 39.06. There are 893 full-time teachers and researchers below age 40, among whom 277 hold a Ph. D degree, accounting for 31%; 450 hold a master degree, accounting for 50.4%. The university has 380 professors and 450 associate professors, accounting for 29.3% and 34.6% respectively of the total staff. Among the teachers below the age 45, 9 have obtained the "Science Grant for Outstanding Youth" from the state; 5 have been listed in the "Baiqianwan Talent Project;" and 13 have been included in the training program for the "Leading Figure for the New Century." The university has distinguished professorships listed in the "State Yangtze Scholar Award Program" available in 7 subjects and "Minjiang Scholar Award Program" (Fujian Province) available in 4 subjects.

Now the university has 19,129 students on campus, including 14,064 undergraduates, 3,709 masters' students, 908 doctoral students, 710 international students and 426 students from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. In addition, the university has over 6,000 overseas correspondence students.

Xiamen University set up over 50 research groupings including 1 State Key Laboratory and 3 Education Ministry Key Laboratories. During the Ninth-Five Year Plan period, the university won 75 awards in research at the state, provincial, and ministerial levels; in 1999, the "State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of the Solid Surface" won the first place in the field of chemistry and chemical engineering throughout China in the national appraisal of state key laboratories. The youth research group of the State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of the Solid Surface has been selected among the first "Pioneering Research Groups" by the State Natural Science Research Foundation, and is one of the first two "Pioneering Research Groups" in the discipline of chemistry in China. The research in high and new technology and the conversion of research into production have displayed a fine trend of development, as the construction of Xiamen University Science and Technology Garden started in April 2000. In addition, in order to strengthen interdisciplinary research and merging, the university has now set up a number of cross-discipline research institutes, such as the Microcomputer Electromechanical Research Center, Nanometer Technology Research Center, and WTO Research Center.

Xiamen University is also strong in the aspect of humanities and social science, and has its traditional superiority and characteristics. Since China's reform and opening to the outside world, great efforts have been expended in the research around the major issues that have arisen in the contemporary economic and social development, and the function of Xiamen University as "bank of talents" and "source of intelligence" has been brought into full play. During the "Ninth-Five Year Plan" period, Xiamen University won over 276 awards at the state, provincial and ministerial levels. According to the statistics accumulated by the China Social Science Research Appraisal Center, Xiamen University ranked sixth among all the universities in China in the number of paper publications in 1998; it was placed the third among all the universities in China as it won 6 State Social Science Foundation Excellent Achievement Awards in 1999. The university also has its unique characteristics and achievements in its studies of Taiwan, Southeast Asia, marine, and special economic zones, among others. It has established 4 state key social science research bases.

Xiamen University has successively established inter-university cooperative ties with 59 institutions of higher education in such countries and regions as Britain, the US, Japan, France, Russia, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. With respect to cultural exchange with Taiwan, Xiamen University has an especially favorable geographical location and irreplaceable advantages in human resources. It has carried on active and extensive exchanges by establishing academic ties with 24 universities and colleges, 63 research institutes, and 34 media outlets in Taiwan. It is one of the universities in mainland China most actively engaged in educational, scientific, and cultural exchanges with Taiwan.

In the past few years, the university has greatly improved its teaching and research equipment and its public service system. At present, its total residential space for students amounts to 740,000 square meters (not including Zengcuo'an Students' Residential Area, which has 67,000 square meters of floor space and was funded by the municipal government), a library holding 2,400,000 volumes, and instruments and equipment worth RMB 357,000,000. The scope and level of its high-speed information network on campus is rated at the top of all universities in China.

In order to meet the competition and challenge of the new century, Xiamen University has set its goal of "building a high-level university well-known both in China and abroad." Xiamen University is now making great strides towards that goal.