Donghua University (DHU) was founded in 1951 and is one of the state-key universities directly under the Ministry of Education of China. Its feature disciplines, such as Textile Engineering, Material Science, Fashion Design, and Information Technology have received high reputation both domestically and abroad.

DHU is a multi-disciplinary university with a wide range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs across a vast field of disciplines including engineering, economics, management, literature and art, laws, science, and education. With the continuous development of typical disciplines, the university has also made significant breakthroughs in English-taught undergraduate or master's programs on Business Administration, International Trade, Marketing, Fashion Design, Interior Design, Textile Engineering, Material Science, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, International Business, etc. It has 16 colleges and schools, offering 60 undergraduate programs, 65 master’s degree programs, 29 doctoral degree programs, and 5 postdoctoral research programs, among which are 6 state key disciplines and 7 Shanghai municipal key disciplines. Academic achievements have found applications in areas such as aeronautics, military science, new material, architecture, and environment protection. 

DHU was one of the universities that accepted international students as early as 1954, as well as one of the first batch of 27 universities that have passed the Quality Accreditation for International Students Education. DHU enrolled more than 4900 international students from nearly 140 countries in 2019.  International Cultural Exchange School (ICES) locates on DHU's Yan'an road campus, which is seated in the downtown area of Shanghai, and provides kinds of long-term and short-term Chinese language programs, which were inspected by EAQUALS (Evaluation and Accreditation of Quality Language Services) in 2022 and met the high standards required for EAQUALS accreditation.