Shenzhen University was established in 1983 with the approval of the Ministry of Education. The Central Committee, the Ministry of Education and the local governments attach great importance to the construction of special economic zones universities. Peking University supported the construction of Chinese and foreign language disciplines, Tsinghua assisted the construction of electronics and architecture disciplines, and the National People's Congress assisted the construction of economic and legal disciplines. A large number of well-known scholars gathered in Shenzhen University. At the beginning of the school's establishment, the University was keen to reform its management system, and actively explored scholarship, credit system, work-study program and other aspects. It took the lead in implementing the system of non-contractual distribution of graduates and two-way selection in China, implementing the system of full-time appointment of faculty and staff and the reform of socialized management of logistics departments, which aroused strong repercussions throughout the country.

Since its establishment 35 years ago, Shenzhen University has been following the Special Zone with keen reform and rapid development. Adhering to the school motto of "self-reliance, self-discipline and self-improvement", the school has formed the characteristics of "Special Administrative Region University, Window University and Experimental University". It has formed a complete talent training system from bachelor's degree, master's degree to doctor's degree, as well as a multi-level scientific research and social service system. It has become a comprehensive university with complete disciplines, perfect facilities, excellent teachers and standardized management. Shenzhen University is a national cultural quality education base for college students and a national civilized campus. In order to realize the connotative development of higher education, the school has formulated the Outline of Cultural Innovation and Development of Shenzhen University, and established Rao Zongyi Institute of Culture and Liu Yuyi Academy of Art. With a high degree of cultural consciousness and cultural confidence, the university culture of the Special Socialist Zone with Chinese characteristics can be built first-class.

Shenzhen University has two campuses, Houhai and Xili, with a total area of 2.72 square kilometers. The school has abundant teaching resources and complete scientific research facilities. The total building area of the campus is 1.543 million square meters, and the total value of the equipment is 1.85 billion yuan. There are 51202(including the first issue of Xili Campus Library), more than 4.079 million copies of paper resources, 257 kinds of databases, including 23255,500 full-text e-books and 124,800 full-text e-journals. At present, there is one pilot project for comprehensive reform of undergraduate majors at the national level, one experimental area for innovative training mode at the national level and one national practice teaching base. There are two national experimental teaching demonstration centers, one national virtual simulation experimental teaching center, 15 provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers and one provincial virtual simulation experimental teaching center. There are three national engineering laboratories, one national engineering center, two key laboratories of the Ministry of Education and 38 provincial key laboratories.

There are 35 455 full-time students in Shenzhen University, including 28 674 full-time undergraduates, 6433 master students, 348 doctoral students, 1744 part-time master students, 21022 adult education students and 837 overseas students. School disciplines are comprehensive and comprehensive, covering 11 disciplines such as philosophy, literature, economics, law, pedagogy, science, engineering, management, medicine, history, art and so on. The school has 27 teaching colleges, two directly affiliated hospitals and 90 undergraduate majors. At present, there are 5 national characteristic specialties, 10 provincial characteristic specialties and 15 provincial key disciplines. There are 10 first-level disciplines authorized by doctoral degree, 3 post-doctoral research mobile stations and 1 post-doctoral workstation. There are 38 first-level disciplines authorized by master's degree and 18 categories authorized by professional master's degree, of which 12 are authorized by engineering master. Engineering, clinical medicine, materials science, biology and biochemistry, computer science and chemistry rank the top 1% in the world in ESI disciplines, ranking 84th in the list of highly cited essays in the extended ESI edition of Chinese universities. The University initiated the formation of the National UOOC Alliance of Local Universities, joining 125 universities, offering 310 online courses, 103 elective schools, 54 credit recognition schools and nearly 500,000 elective courses. In 2017, the undergraduates won 727 competition awards at all levels, including 175 at the international level, 241 at the national level and 237 at the provincial and ministerial level.

The structure of school teachers has been continuously optimized, and the introduction and training of high-level talents have yielded fruitful results. There are 3776 faculty members (excluding affiliated middle schools and general hospitals), including 2351 full-time teachers (517 professors, 642 associate professors), 669 technicians and 756 managers. There are 955 postdoctoral students, 336 full-time researchers and 154 visiting professors in our university. There are 16 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering (including 5 short-term appointments), 1 academician of the American Academy of Medicine and Bioengineering, 4 academicians of the American Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Medical Sciences (short-term appointments), 1 academician of the Royal Academy of Engineering, 1 academician of Canadian Engineering, 1 academician of Canadian Academies, 1 academician of European Academy of One Nobel Prize (Physiology and Medicine) winner (short-term employment). There are five chief scientists of the National 973 Program, 25 scholars of the Yangtze River, 32 recipients of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund, 14 recipients of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund and 9 "Outstanding Talents in the New Century" of the Ministry of Education.

Schools continue to deepen the reform of scientific research system, and scientific research projects and funds have increased significantly. In 2017, the total funds for scientific research exceeded 1 billion yuan; 281 projects of the National Natural Science Foundation were added, ranking 23rd in the country and 2nd in Guangdong universities; 31 projects of the National Social Science Foundation were added, ranking 37th in the country and 3rd in Guangdong universities. SCI included 2280 papers and SSCI 202 papers. He won 2160 awards for scientific research. 327 patents were granted, of which 211 were granted for invention patents. The journal Science and Technology Edition won the fourth excellent award of Chinese University Science and technology journals, and the journal humanities and Social Sciences Edition ranked 23rd in the National University journals.

The school actively promotes "international talent training, international scientific research cooperation, international teacher construction and international cultural exchange". Now it has established contacts with 248 overseas universities to carry out various forms of international cooperation, such as student exchange, teacher research and cooperation in running schools, so as to comprehensively improve the quality and level of international exchanges.

Shenzhen University will continue to base itself on Shenzhen, rely on the economic and social development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District, face the world, cultivate high-quality innovative and entrepreneurship talents with the spirit of reform and innovation, adhere to cultural leadership, strengthen innovation drive, achieve connotative development, and strive hard to build a high-level special economic and social university that people are satisfied with in the new era.