Established in 1905 as Fudan Public School, Fudan University was the first independent institution of higher education in China. In 1941 it was renamed National Fudan University and in 2000 the Medical University was affiliated.

Fudan University is part of Project 211, Project 985 as well as of the C9-League. In 2012 it ranked 5^th among the Chinese universities. As a comprehensive research university, Fudan University is also a member of Universitas21, the leading global network of research-intensive universities. Its main fields of research are Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Life Science, Biomedicine, Mathematics, Material Science and Social Science.

Fudan University offers 73 Bachelor, 201 Master, 156 PhD and 29 post-doc programs. There are also several master programs in English available, for example in Chinese Economy, Chinese Society, Chinese Politics and Diplomacy, Chinese Language and Culture, LL.M Program in Chinese Law and the Fudan International MBA Program.

Since 2011, Fudan University and Freie Universität Berlin have maintained a partnership.