Jishou University, founded in 1958, runs schools in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province. It is a comprehensive university in Hunan Province and the only comprehensive university in Wuling Mountain area. The school has successively become an ordinary university jointly established by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission and the Hunan Provincial Government, a batch-admitted university, a doctor's degree authorized unit, a high-level university in Hunan Province, a "double-first-class" university in Hunan Province, and recommended excellent undergraduate graduates to study for a master's degree without examination.