Yangzhou University (YZU) is co-sponsored by the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government and the Ministry of Education of China. It is a key comprehensive university of Jiangsu Province, and one of the first authorized to grant both master’s and doctoral degrees. The history of YZU can be traced back to as early as 1902, when its predecessors, Tongzhou Private Teachers’ School and Tonghai Agricultural School, were established.

Based on the motto of being perseverant and self-reliant, YZU’s education features a rich legacy in humanities, advantages in agricultural sciences, integration of sciences and humanities, and a harmonious development of each major discipline. Currently there are over 25,000 full-time undergraduate students and more than 11,000 postgraduate students on YZU campuses, among which over 2,000 are overseas students. Among the 2,300 full-time teachers there are 2 Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. YZU’s 28 colleges offer 121 undergraduate programs, covering the 12 disciplines of philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management science and art. YZU has 3 national key disciplines, 22 first-level doctoral programs, and 47 first-level master’s programs. YZU’s overall competence as well as 7 disciplines, namely chemistry, plant and animal sciences, engineering, agricultural sciences, clinical medicine, material science and computer science, have entered ESI’s top 1% among worldwide universities and research institutions. YZU has constructed over 50 platforms for teaching and scientific research that are of ministerial or provincial level or above, including a Joint International Laboratory and a Research Center for Regional and Cross-nation Studies, and has set up close cooperation and exchange relations with more than 250 higher education institutions and research institutions in over 50 countries and regions.

Shandong University is a comprehensive university in China with full-fledged academic disciplines. There are at present 12 general disciplines for undergraduates and postgraduates, namely philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management, and fine arts. There are 44 first-level doctoral programs, 51 first-level master degree programs, 93 programs for undergraduates and 42 post-doctoral research programs, forming a complete system for cultivation of talent. 18 disciplines are ranked in the top 1% of ESI Global Ranking in terms of academic influence and contribution capacity. Moreover, inter-school partnership has been forged with more than 200 schools in over 30 countries and regions.

The growth of the university over the years has seen SDU rise to the forefront of many fields in China. In the 1930s and 1950s, when Shandong University was located in Qingdao, it was the home to many nationally famous scholars who paved the way for great success especially in the fields of literature and history. Up to this day, Shandong University is well-known for its strong liberal arts programs, and published the highly reputable academic journal Literature, History & Philosophy. These two periods also laid a good foundation for the university in natural sciences, enabling it to find itself among the noted institutions in China. In August 2015, SDU successfully held the 22nd International Congress of Historical Sciences, reputed as the “Olympics of Historiography”. This is the first time that the Congress was introduced to Asian, African and Latin American countries since its establishment. Another record high was also made in terms of its numbers of participating registered countries, historians from developing countries and young scholars.Since the merger at the end of the last century, the university’s newly-developed disciplines of financial mathematics, crystal materials, condensed matter physics, colloid and surface chemistry, micro-biology, machinery, material science, cardiovascular functional recovery, new drug manufacturing, and classical Chinese philosophy have all risen to the first-class level within the country, and some are even known abroad.