According to official website of Southern Medical University, South China Medical University is neither a 985 university nor a 2 1 1 university. Southern Medical University, formerly known as the First Military Medical University of Chinese People's Liberation Army, was founded in 195 1, 1979 and was designated as a national key university. In August 2004, it was transferred to Guangdong Province as a whole and renamed Southern Medical University, with two campuses in Guangzhou and Shunde. The school is the only medical college among the first batch of five provincial-level high-level universities in Guangdong Province, the first batch of medical colleges set up by "ministries" in China, one of the first batch of eight universities offering eight-year clinical medicine (bachelor's degree and doctoral degree joint study), and the first batch of pilot universities training excellent doctors and excellent doctors (Chinese medicine) in China. The school has been selected as one of the top 500 universities in Times Higher Education for three consecutive years, and will rank among the top 400 universities in the world in 2023.