Xiamen University colloquially known as Xia Da , located in Xiamen

Xiamen

Xiamen , also known as Amoy , is a major city on the southeast coast of the People's Republic of China. It is administered as a sub-provincial city of Fujian province with an area of and population of 3.53 million...

, Fujian

Fujian

' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

 province, is the first university in China founded by overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....

. Before 1949, it was originally known as the University of Amoy. The school motto is "Pursue Excellence, Strive for Perfection (自强不息, 止于至善)". The university is one of many comprehensive universities directly administered by the Chinese Ministry of Education. In 1995 it was included in the list of the 211 Project for the state key construction; in 2000 it became one of China’s higher-level universities designated for the state key construction of the 985 Project.

According to University Undergraduates Teaching Assessment and Chinese Universities Evaluation Standings, the university is ranked 11th in China, which is outside the top then and has maintained the top 20 ranking in China, among which 6 subjects reach A++ level, including economics and management, music, law, chemistry, journalism, communication and mathematics.
In 1919 Mr.