Hainan University, referred to as Haida for short, is located in Haikou City, Hainan Province. It is a university jointly established by the Ministry of Education and the People's Government of Hainan Province, and jointly established by the People's Government of Hainan Province and the Ministry of Finance. It is a comprehensive key university in Hainan Province and a key university supported by the "National First-class University Construction" in Hainan Province.

It was selected as a world-class discipline construction university, 2 1 1 project, excellent engineer education and training plan, excellent legal talent education and training plan, excellent agricultural and forestry talent education and training plan, basic capacity building project of central and western universities and comprehensive strength improvement project of central and western universities.

The National Construction of High-level University Postgraduate Program, China Government Scholarship Receiving Institution for Studying in China, Demonstration Base for Studying in China of the Ministry of Education, National College Students' Cultural Quality Education Base and National College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Plan are members of the National Key Construction University (Z 14) Alliance and CDIO Engineering Education Alliance in the central and western regions.

The school is jointly established with Tianjin University. The school's predecessor was the former South China University of Tropical Agriculture founded by 1958 and the former Hainan University founded by 1983. In August 2007, the two universities merged into the new Hainan University.