Established in 1951, Southern Medical University (SMU), a national key university (1979), was originally the First Military Medical University, PLA. In August 2004, it was handed over to the local government of Guangdong Province and renamed as Southern Medical University. It is the only Provincial Prospective High-Level Medical Universities and the first Ministry-Province Co-constructed Medical University. SMU is one of the first 8 prestigious universities to run the pilot 8-year medical education program. It is also the first universities to pilot the program of education and cultivation of outstanding doctors in China. 

SMU, located at the foot of the picturesque Baiyun Mountain in Guangzhou, has two campuses. The main campus and the Shunde campus cover an area of nearly 1.68 million square meters, with a construction area of 0.845 million square meters. The University has 21 schools with an enrollment of 22,804 degree candidates, including 7,692 postgraduates, 14,100 undergraduates and 1,012 international students. It has 13 affiliated hospitals with 13,000 hospital beds in total.

The University covers 6 disciplines including Medicine, Science, Engineering, Law, Management and Education. Its 9 academic disciplines including Clinical Medicine, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Biology and Biochemistry, Neuroscience and Behavioristics, Immunology, Chemistry, Materials Science and Microbiology were listed by ESI (Essential Science Indicators) as the world’s top 1%, among which Clinical Medicine was listed as the world’s top 1‰. In 2022 THE (Times Higher Education) World University Rankings, SMU ranked 401-500th globally, and 18-24th among Chinese mainland universities. In the 2021 “Medical Circle” List of the Best Medical Colleges and Universities in China, SMU ranked the 13th among all universities in China (including comprehensive universities). 

In 2005, the University began to enroll international undergraduates majoring in MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, programs delivered in English), and started to enroll international students who receive Chinese Government Scholarship in 2006. At the end of 2021, SMU has cultivated more than 2,500 international students from 108 different countries. Besides, SMU is one of the ten educational foreign aid bases designated by the Ministry of Education of China, and the key backbone unit of foreign aid training designated by the Ministry of Commerce of China. It has trained 3,196 medical and health officials and technicians from 122 countries. SMU regularly conducts foreign exchanges and establishes friendly relations with 64 universities and research institutions in 24 countries and regions, carrying out multi-channel cooperation activities such as jointly running schools, scientific research cooperation, jointly training.