Fudan University was established in 1905 as Fudan Public School. It was the first institution of higher education to be founded by a Chinese person. The two characters, fù (“return”) and dàn (“dawn”) were borrowed from A Commentary on The Classic of History （《尚书大传·虞夏传》）, of which the part on the Yu and the Xia dynasties mentions: “Brilliant are the sunshine and moonlight, again the morning radiance returns at dawn.” In 1917, the institution was renamed Fudan University, which has been kept ever since.  

Fundan upholds the spirit of patriotism, solidarity, service and sacrifice. Its motto is scientia et studium, quaestio et cogitatio, which means rich in knowledge and tenacious of purposes, inquiring with earnestness and reflecting with self-practice. With a time-honored tradition of academic independence and free exploration, the univeristy is distinguished by its academic character. "rectification of rightousness, illustration of virtue... and indifference to honer and reward."

As a national key university in China, Fudan University has a history of more than 100 years, and it has developed into a comprehensive research university including humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, technological sciences, management sciences and medicine. The university is attended by about 30000 students, 12300 at the undergraduate level, 19000 at the graduate level in 2017.

Fudan is one of the first few institutions in China to admit foreign students. Fudan admitted about 4500 foreign students in 2017, ranking top three among all comprehensive universities in China. At present, there are over 1100 undergraduate students, 1000 graduate students, 800 advanced students, and 600 language students.

Being one of the first few Chinese language teaching bases in China, Fudan University has been devoted to training foreign students to skillfully master the Chinese language and fully understand Chinese culture.

In order to adapt to the needs of international cooperation, Fudan University is trying to develop English-taught programs to foreign students. Now there are over 50 English-taught undergraduate’s and postgraduate’s programs accepting foreign students.