Xiangtan University is located in Xiangtan City of Hunan Province, the hometown of China's late Chairman Mao Zedong. This comprehensive university has 20 academic schools, offering 80 undergraduate programs, 180 postgraduate programs, 69 doctoral programs, and nine postdoctoral programs.

The main campus has an enrollment of over 36,000 students, including 6,303 postgraduates and doctoral candidates. Currently, over 100 foreign students are studying at the university.

The school has always paid great attention to international exchanges and cooperation with overseas universities and institutions. In the past few decades, the university has exchanges and cooperation with over 50 universities in more than 20 countries and regions, including France, Spain, Japan, Russia, the United States, UK, and Australia.

The university has also been an important place for African studies. It founded the Center for African Laws and Society in 2005, which is China's first research institution for African laws. At present, the center's research focuses mainly on three aspects: theory and practice of African laws, the changes of African laws and social development, human rights and diplomacy in Africa.

The center has 22 researchers: 15 come from the Law School, and the rest come from the School of History and the School of Foreign Languages of the university. They have published eight books and over 200 academic papers on African laws, and undertaken five projects sponsored by National Social Science Fund, such as the History and the Development of China-Africa Legal Cooperation and Research on the History of the African Legal Culture. The center has also undertaken about 20 provincial projects.

In 2006, the center hosted the Seminar on Jurisprudential, Social and Economic Development of African Countries sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Commerce. Fifteen law experts and officials from six African countries attended the seminar. In the same year, it also co-hosted the First China-Africa Legal Education and Legal Culture Forum with Renmin University of China. Meanwhile, the center has established wide connections with research institutes in many African countries, as well as in UK, the United States, Germany and France.

Under the 20+20 Cooperation Project Among China-Africa Universities, Xiangtan University partnered with Uganda's Makerere University two years ago. Since then, the two institutions have cooperated on education and research.

In 2010, they co-hosted China-Africa Investment and Law Seminar; in 2011, their joint research work focused on water quality management and pollution control. This year, the two sides agreed to strengthen academic cooperation with a specific focus on petroleum and chemical engineering.

In May, a delegation from Xiangtan University visited Makerere University to discuss possible areas of collaboration - particularly for the College of Natural Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Public Health and the School of Law of this African university. 

This followed a memorandum of understanding signed between the two institutions to establish long-term academic coopeeration with a special focus on petroleum and chemical engineering, water control research, Chinese language teaching and the establishment of a Center for African Society, Economy and Law in Makerere University.

Currently, there are two students from Makerere University studying master's programs in law and environmental engineering at Xiantang University. An additional four lecturers will join the university this September to work in chemical engineering and environmental science.