Shenzhen University
Shenzhen University is a municipal public research university in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. The university is funded by the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government.
Location
SZU comprises two campuses, Houhai campus and Xili campus, occupying 2.72 square kilometers in total. The Houhai campus is located on the coastline of Houhai Bay with 1.34 square kilometers. The new Xili campus now under construction is located in the city's University Town and takes up 1.38 square kilometers.History
Shenzhen University was established in 1983 as a full-time comprehensive university, in line with the aim of China's Ministry of Education to further develop the critical infrastructure in the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen with strong support from Chinese leading universities including Peking University, Tsinghua University and Renmin University of China. Deng Xiaoping gave his personal approval to the university. Professor Zhang Wei, who was the former vice-president of Tsinghua University, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was appointed as the first president.In 1995, Shenzhen University passed the teaching evaluation for the undergraduate program accredited by the Ministry of Education and was among the first group of universities in China to have its undergraduate programs certified. In 1996, Shenzhen University was accredited by the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee of the State Council for Master's programs. In 1997, Shenzhen University reorganized into the faculty and college structure, adopted a work-study program and committed to an integrated approach to teaching.
Since 2017, the university has concentrated on research-oriented teaching and has invested in research laboratories. In 2017, the research budget totaled 9.705 million RMB. In 2024, Nobel Prize laureate Barry Marshall was appointed as a chair professor at SZU. Many businesses and academics have made donations to support the development of Shenzhen University, and some entrepreneurs have set up funds and scholarships in various disciplines. Shenzhen University has 26 PhD programs as of 2025.
Administration
Faculty departmental structure
SZU now has 27 schools, providing 96 undergraduate majors, 38 first-grade master's degree conferring disciplines; 18 professional master's degree conferring disciplines and 10 first-grade doctoral degrees.| Normal College | School of Humanities | College of International Studies | School of Media and Communication |
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| College of Economics | College of Management | Law School | College of Art and Design |
| College of Materials Science and Engineering | College of Physics & Energy | College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering | School of Mathematical Sciences |
| College of Information Engineering | College of Computer Science & Software Engineering | School of Architecture and Urban Planning | College of Civil Engineering |
| College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering | College of Electronic Science and Technology | College of Life Sciences and Oceanography | College of Optoelectronic Engineering |
| Health Science Center | College of Psychology and Sociology | Institute for Advanced Study | Other colleges |
Staff
The faculty consists of 3,455 staff. There are 2,267 teachers, 561 technicians, 627 administrative staff, 782 postdoctoral researchers, 220 full-time researchers, 119 visiting professors and 228 foreign teachers. It has 1 Nobel Prize laureate, 7 academicians in the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and 10 academicians in both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.Research
In 2025, Shenzhen University ranked 56th globally and 30th in Chinese mainland in the Nature Index. From 2020–2024, it received RMB 9.271 billion in S&T funding; undertook 124 National Key R&D projects and 5 National Major S&T projects; secured 1,763 NSFC grants; won 3 national and 89 provincial/ministerial S&T awards; published 32,398 SCI-indexed papers; and obtained 5,679 patents. In the social sciences, it received RMB 320 million; undertook 178 NSSF projects and 100 MOE HSS projects; published 3,736 SSCI/A&HCI papers; and won 17 national awards. The university publishes the Journal of Shenzhen University and the Journal of Shenzhen University.Library
Shenzhen University library holds a collection of 51202 million items, consisting of 4,007,900 million paper resources and there are 257 kinds of databases, which include 2,325,500 full-text e-books in Chinese and foreign languages and 124,800 e-journal are accessible via personal computers and Internet library terminals. The campus has 30,000 Internet connections and 99 percent of its classrooms and lecture halls have been digitized.Students
As of 2025, Shenzhen University has 48,865 students enrolled in regular higher education programs, including 29,869 undergraduates, 16,575 master's students, 1,601 doctoral students, and 820 international students.It has granted diplomas to 2,000 graduates from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administration Regions as well as Taiwan. Shenzhen University has also established "dual-campus" joint-programs for undergraduate degrees with institutions in Great Britain and other foreign countries. There are up to 2,500 students that graduated from these joint programs since the university's inception, and the quality of programs has been accredited by the British Council. Shenzhen University participates with annual exchanges students and teachers with its sister universities in the United States of America, Great Britain, Japan, and South Korea.
Rankings and reputation
As of 2025, Shenzhen University was ranked # 151 by the Academic Ranking of World Universities and # 156 globally by the U.S. [News & World Report Best Global University Ranking].The 2024 CWTS Leiden Ranking ranked Shenzhen University 95th in the world by total publications and 100th in the world based on the number of their scientific publications belonging to the top 1% in their fields for the time period 2019–2022.
Nature Index
Nature Index tracks the affiliations of high-quality scientific articles and presents research outputs by institution and country on a monthly basis. SZU ranked 10th in the world for Nature Index 2021 Young Universities. It ranked #57 in the world, and #32 in the Asia-Pacific region for Nature Index Research Leaders 2025.| Year | Rank | Valuer |
| 2021 | 10 | Nature Index 2021 Young Universities |
| 2025 | 28 | Nature Index – Academic Institutions – China |
| 2025 | 32 | Nature Index – Academic Institutions – Asia-Pacific |
| 2025 | 57 | Nature Index – Academic Institutions – Global |
Notable alumni
- Ma Huateng, Chinese entrepreneur, founder of Tencent.
Hospitals