1. Location is different: Gulou Campus is the historical campus of Nantah, located in the center of Nanjing, at No.22 hankou road, Gulou District, Nanjing; Xianlin Campus is the main campus of NTU, located in the eastern suburb of Nanjing, at Xianlin Avenue 163, Qixia District, Nanjing. Pukou Campus is the latest campus of NTU, located in the north of Nanjing, No.8 Xuefu Road, Pukou District, Nanjing.

2. Different disciplines: Gulou Campus is an important research base of humanities and social sciences in Nantah, including literature, history, philosophy, law and political science. Xianlin Campus is the campus of NTU School of Engineering Science; Pukou campus is mainly the campus of NTU Academy of Life Sciences and Academy of Ocean Sciences.

Nanjing University is an institution of higher learning with a long history and outstanding reputation. Its predecessor was Sanjiang Normal School, which was founded in 1902. Since then, it has been renamed Nanjing University on 1950 after historical periods such as Liangjiang Normal University, Nanjing Normal University, National Southeast University, National Fourth Sun Yat-sen University, National Central University and National Nanjing University. After adjusting some departments of engineering, agronomy and teachers' training, Nanjing University merged with the College of Arts and Sciences of Jinling University and was founded in 1888, still named Nanjing University. The school site was moved from Sipailou to the original site of Drum Tower Jinda.