Qingdao Agricultural University （referred to as QAU） was founded in 1951, and now has four campuses，namely Chengyang, Pingdu, Laiyang and Blue Valley, and one Center for Modern Agri-tech Service in Jiaozhou. QAU covers a total area of 5220 MU（about 860 acres）.

　　In the long-term practice of school running, the university has formed its school motto of “Virtue, Erudition, Earnestness and Aspiration” and its school spirit of “Diligence, Discipline, Practicality and Innovation”. Today’s QAU has developed herself into a well-balanced comprehensive university, which covers eight disciplines including Agricultural Science, Engineering, Natural Science, Economics, Management, Literature, Art and Law. QAU has 25 schools (departments) and provides 82 undergraduate programs, 14 first-level disciplines of postgraduate programs and 13 professional postgraduate programs，and two doctoral programs. Totally, QAU now has over 30,000 full-time students. The university’s Plant & Animal Science, Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Environment and Ecology are among the top 1% of ESI in the world. QAU’s Aquaculture, Plant & Animal Science (including Grass Science) are the first-class disciplines in Shandong Province.

　　The university sticks to strengthening moral education and cultivating high-quality talents, and has formed a multi-level pattern of coordinated development of undergraduate education, graduate education, continuing education and international-student education.

　　The university persists in setting up research projects to meet national and local key strategic needs, and carries out basic and applied research oriented to production practice. Since 1978, QAU has been taking a leading position among all provincial universities in Shandong because the university has won 238 provincial-level or ministry-level (and above) science and technology awards, among which, 14 are national-level awards and 37 are provincial-level or ministry-level awards. From 1970s to 1990s, QAU firstly initiated high-yield theories and techniques for wheat (more than 7500kg/ha), summer maize (more than 7500kg/ha), dry-land wheat (7500kg/ha), and summer peanut (6000kg/ha), which made great contributions to ensuring national food security, achieving the increase of grain and oil crops, and promoting the development of animal husbandry. Since the new century, the university has made brilliant achievements in crop genetics and breeding, animal genetics and variety improvement, modern agricultural machinery research and development, biological pesticides, three-rural-issues policies, modern communication technology research and development and other fields.

　　The university actively meets the needs of industrial development and has made remarkable contributions in social services, which is not only limited in Shandong Province, but also extended to 20 other provinces, cities and autonomous regions. Till today, QAU has set up 57 high-quality model bases and 10 regional institutes in China.

　　Sticking to the “Academic, High-level, and International”principle, QAU has established collaborations with over 100 universities and scientific institutions in over 20 countries and areas, including the University of British Columbia in Canada, Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Seoul National University in South Korea, Murdoch University in Australia, and Royal Agricultural University in UK. QAU is also among the first group of provincial universities to admit international students in Shandong province. Moreover, QAU has established her international joint-training system for undergraduates, masters and PhD candidates by conducting undergraduate-to-master program  with over 20 partner universities in the United States, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and New Zealand, jointly training PhD candidates with Murdoch University in Australia, and setting up Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run programs with Royal Agricultural University in the UK, Sejong University in Korea and so on.

　　In the face of new developmental opportunities and challenges, QAU adheres to scientific development, connotative development, harmonious development and innovative development, actively promotes and deepens its reform, constantly improves its comprehensive strength and core competitiveness, and strides forward towards the goal of building herself into a high-level university with prominent advantages and distinctive characteristics!

　　(Updated in June 2023)