Nanjing University – Redeeming the Past by Academic Merit

Abstract

In the first half of the 20th century, Nanjing University (Nanda) once had a similar national leading status to that of Peking University. Its history is almost as long, but its location in the former capital of the Nationalist regime, and its position as the successor to the National Central University, the leading higher institution of the Nationalist period, have given it certain disadvantages in the new China, established under the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1949. This chapter illustrates how Nanda has sought to overcome these disadvantages through a determined commitment to academic excellence and through strategic efforts to raise the profile of its published research and engage in significant and long standing international partnerships, such as the Hopkins-Nanjing Centre, which was established in the early 1980s.