[1] Huaqiao University was founded in 1960, with support from the late Chinese premier and historical figure Zhou Enlai, for students of overseas Chinese backgrounds (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore) to pursue tertiary education in their ancestral homelands.

The university has 28,000 full-time on-campus students, including 3,000 overseas students from 29 countries and regions including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, United States and Argentina.

[citation needed] The main campus covers an area of 740,000 m2 with a total floor space of 550,000 square metres.

[citation needed] The university comprises 19 colleges or departments of science, engineering, economics, management, law, liberal arts, philosophy, and history.

[citation needed] Since 1997, the university has enrolled a total of 216 postgraduates from Macau, who pursued such fields as economy, enterprise management, computer science and philosophy.