Upon approval of the Ministry of Education of China , Guangzhou University (GU) was founded as a multi-disciplinary institution on July 11, 2000 by merging the tertiary institutions previously known as Guangzhou Normal University , South China College of Construction, Guangzhou University , Guangzhou Junior Teachers College . As a comprehensive university, GU is affiliated to Guangzhou Municipal People's Government and Guangdong Province Government, while the larger part of the University's administration is subject to Guangzhou Municipal People's Government.

The university covers a total area of 131.7 hectares, with a building space of 596,000 square meters in Guangzhou University Town . Its well-stocked library has a total collection of 1,960,000 books.

GU makes Guangzhou the basis of its development and involves itself in Guangdong Province as well as the whole of China and the outside world. While the undergraduate program remains the dominant part of its operation, GU is fully committed to consolidating and expanding its postgraduate programs and international students program. The University comprises 18 schools and 6 colleges. The university is currently authorized to run 17 postgraduate programs. It also offers 62 undergraduate programs with a disciplinary coverage of 8 categories, including Principles of Education, Literature, Law, Science, Engineering, Management, and Economics.

As a university of a considerable size, GU has a teaching and research staff of 1220 including one academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 185 full professors, 543 associate professors, of whom 142 are PhD holders. The university's current full-time postgraduates and undergraduates number 18,000. GU also enrolls students from overseas, including Hong Kong , Macao and Taiwan as well.

The university has up to 46 research institutes/centers specializing in a wide range of subjects including Earthquake Engineering Research Test Center , Institute for Material Research, Institute for Higher Education Research, Human Right Research Center , Computer Network Center , Institute for Computer Science & Software Research, International Exchange Center of Mathematics & Artificial Intelligence etc.

Academic exchanges and cooperation with the outside world have always been an important part of the university. GU has so far established cooperative relationships in a wide range with universities and academic institutions in such countries as the U. S. A, Australia, France, Russia, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Switzerland, and the regions like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

In order to adapt itself to the social and economic development in the new century, GU has formulated its“11 th Five-Year Plan”. GU is now fully committed to the mission of developing itself into a modern, and comprehensive university with an orientation to teaching and research and makes an effort to be one of well-known universities, with a unique characteristic, and become a leading tertiary institution of its type in China .