Central South University (CSU) is a comprehensive and national key university under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education in China. CSU was established in April, 2000 on the basis of the amalgamation of the three former individual universities, namely Central South University of Technology, Hunan Medical University and Changsha Railway University. CSU is situated in Changsha, Hunan. Prof. Li Jian is secretary of the Communist Party of China's CSU Committee, and Prof.Huang Boyun, an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, is president of CSU.

The fields of study at CSU cover 10 branches of learning, namely engineering, science, medicine, management, literature, law, economics, philosophy, education and history. The university now offers 75 undergraduate programs, 242 master's programs and 102 doctoral programs. It has 22 postdoctoral exchange centers, 17 national key disciplines, 4 national key laboratories, 7 national or ministry-level key training or research centers and 5 national talent training bases and research bases. Among its faculty members, there are 3 academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 12 academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 574 doctoral supervisors, more than 898 full professors and more than 1985 associate professors. At present, the total number of full-time students at CSU has reached more than 50,000, including more than 15,700 graduates working for master's and doctoral degrees, more than 33,000 undergraduates, more than 408 overseas students and about 12,000 students taking courses in degree and non-degree programs of adult education.

CSU is among the 32 universities first acceded to the "211 Project". CSU covers an area of 3,810,000 square meters and has a total floor space of 2,330,000 square meters.It also uses advanced teaching and research equipment with a total value of 620 million yuan (RMB). The university libraries have a collection of 4,390,000 volumes. Information digitalization and automatic management are applied in these libraries. The university has 3 top affiliated hospitals which enjoy good reputation. CSU is now struggling for the goal of constructing of a high-level, research oriented comprehensive university well-known both at home and abroad.