Located in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province of China, Anhui Agricultural University (AAU) is a key university, with a long history specializing in agriculture and forestry. It is supported by the Anhui provincial government, China Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and National Forestry and Grassland Administration. It was recognized by the Chinese central government as one of the first ten universities nationwide to establish a Research Institute for New Rural Development, and it was selected as one of the “distinctive universities with unique features” in Anhui Province.

AAU currently has 19 schools, with a full-time enrollment of 22,100 students (including 155 international students), of whom 3,307 are postgraduates. Among the 1,783 staff, 715 are professors or associate professors. Among this group, over 800 work as PhD and master’s students’ supervisors. Besides, AAU possesses 11 national talents and 21 provincial talents.

At present, two disciplines in AAU are listed among top 1% in ESI, and there is one national key discipline in process, 19 provincial key disciplines, five post-doctoral mobile research stations, five A-level and 38 B-level PhD programs, as well as 16 A-level master's degree programs, and 8 special doctor’s programs. At present there are 80 undergraduate programs, including five national-level programs of distinction, two national-level pilot programs, two nationally recognized pedagogical teams, four nationally recognized courses (two superior courses, two national online open courses). AAU has one nationally recognized off-campus internship base, one national-level teaching laboratory, three national-level integrated agriculture, science and education training bases, two national-level pilot projects in advanced agricultural personnel training.

With an open-minded strategy for educational internationalization, AAU has set up close links with universities and research institutes from over 30 countries and regions, such as US, UK, Canada, Japan, Germany and Australia. AAU was ratified respectively by China Association of Science and Technology as one of “Anhui Overseas Talents’ Agricultural Bases” and by China Ministry of Education as one of Chinese universities eligible to admit international students funded by China Scholarship. China Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs conferred to AAU one of its foreign language training centers for the South-South Cooperation Project. A“National Demonstrative International Science and Technology Cooperation Base”was approved as well. The cooperation between AAU and Colorado State University of USA has been incorporated into the “China-US University-Based Agricultural Extension Alliance.”