Huazhong Agricultural University (HAU) is also known as Central China Agricultural University.
It teaches mainly life sciences alongside agriculture, basic sciences, engineering, liberal arts, law, economic trade, and management.
HAU originated over 100 years ago in a predecessor called Hubei Farming School in 1898, which became Hubei Agricultural College in 1940. This merged in 1952 with the Agricultural College of Wuhan University and various other local agricultural universities, to form Huazhong Agricultural College (HAC) in 1952. The name HAU arrived in 1985.
Against a backdrop of verdant hills, the 475-hectare campus is surrounded on three sides by sparkling lakes.
HAU, used to train special agricultural personnel, was one of the first Chinese universities to be able to give M.A. and PhD degrees, and has created the first doctorate majoring in agronomy.
The university is divided into 13 colleges: Life Sciences and Technology, Animal Sciences and Technology, Veterinary Medicine, Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Resources and Environment, Fishery, Food Science, Economics and Trade, Land Management, Humanities and Social Sciences, Engineering Technology, and Basic Sciences. It also has a Foreign Languages Department.
It has around 50 undergraduate courses, 87 Master’s courses, 54 Ph.D. specialities, and 10 post-doctoral research stations. The University has four government-funded laboratories, ten government-funded engineering technology research centres, and two National Bases for Talent Cultivation, which are government-funded centres aimed at cultivating practical talents for rural areas and agriculture. In 2006 a new library was opened with more than 3,500 air-conditioned reading seats over 31,136m2.
