Directly affiliated to the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Chang'an University is one of the State "211 Project" key development universities jointly run by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Land Resources, Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Construction and Shaanxi Provincial Government. It is concurrently one of the key development universities on the State “985” Project advantage discipline innovation platform. The university was officially established in the year 2000 by merging the former Xi'an Highway University, Xi'an Engineering Institute and Northwest Institute of Construction Engineering, which were founded in the early 1950s. Chang’an University is located in the historical and cultural city of Xi'an and covers an area of more than 3,755 mu (approximately 250 hectares). The university comprises two teaching campuses and two practice bases. Through its 60 years of development, it has evolved into an influential comprehensive higher institution in China, with engineering as its main discipline focus, combining engineering with sciences, and with multidisciplinary development in economy, management and humanities. It has graduated more than 200,000 talents of different levels, mainly in the fields of highway transportation, land resources and environment and construction engineering.

Chang’an University has 22 schools or departments, 5 national-level key disciplines, 26 provincial-level key disciplines, 8 post-doctoral research stations, 8 first-level and 50 second-level doctoral programs, 26 first-level and 118 second-level master programs, 78 undergraduate specialties as well as 9 fields of degree conferment of Mater of Public Management and Master of Industrial and Commercial Management, and 16 enrollment fields of masters in engineering. Furthermore, it is one of the national bases of culture and quality education for college students, and the selection and training base for reserved officers of the Chinese People's Armed Police. At present, the enrollment of full-time students in Chang’an University exceeds 31,000, of whom nearly 9,000 are doctoral and mater postgraduates and international students.

The University presently boasts 2 national engineering laboratories, 7 key laboratories of the Ministry of Education, 13 key laboratories of the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Land Recourse, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction, the key laboratories of Shaanxi Province and engineering research centers, 2 key research center of humanities and social sciences of Shaanxi Province. Its comprehensive automobile testing ground is the only university-based testing field in China.

Chang’an University now has over 1,900 full-time teachers, including 3 academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 national “Thousand Talents Program” expert, 3 "Yangtze River Scholar" chair professors, more than 1,060 full and associate professors, of whom more than 150 are doctoral supervisors, and more than 780 are master supervisors, 7 national and provincial level experts with outstanding contributions, and 80 teachers who have been enrolled on the advanced talent list of the “National Talent Project of the New Millennium” or have been entered in the advanced talent bank of Ministry of Education, Ministry of Transportation and Shaanxi Province.

Striving along the route of combining teaching, scientific research and school-run industries, in recent years, the university has accomplished more than 6,000 scientific research projects, including the national “973” and “863” key projects, the National Natural Science Foundation research projects. 18 projects were awarded national technology prizes including the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. Over 500 projects were awarded ministerial and provincial level prizes. The university has accomplished more than 360 education teaching research projects including national planning project More than 50 projects were awarded the national and provincial Teaching Achievement Award. Its annual scientific research funds sum up to more than 700 million yuan.

The national level academic journals published by Chang’an University include China Journal of Highway and Transport, Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Journal of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Journal of Earth Sciences and Environment, Journal of Chang’an University (Natural Science Edition), Journal of Chang’an University (Social Science Edition), Road Machinery & Construction Mechanization and Automobile Drivers. Among them, 2 are national key development journals, 3 are Ei database entry journals, and 4 are Chinese core journals. China Journal of Highway and Transport and Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering are in the rank of “100 Remarkable Academic Journals of China”.

The enrollment of international students commenced in 1956. Till now, the university has turned out nearly 2000 graduates of different kinds for nearly 40 countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan, Australia, Vietnam, Tanzania and Yemen. The number of international students in university now is over 300. 

The university is also one of the first universities which have provided foreign aid education and recruited students from regions like Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Following the trend of the internationalization of higher education of the country, in recent year, the university has strengthened its exchange and cooperation with more than 120 institution of higher education and scientific research institutions from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, Japan and the South Korea. It has also joined the Sino-US ““1 +2 +1” Talent Nurturing Program and established an international universities league with Rostov State Architectural University from Russia. The Chang’an Foreign Language Training Centre of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs is located here. In recent year, the university has hosted and sponsored a series of high-level international and national academic conferences.

After years of long exploration and practice, Chang’an University has gradually formed its spirit of “self-improving constantly, seeking truth and being pragmatic, striving in unity and pursuing excellence” and earned its high social reputation. On this new historical stage, the university continues to adhere to the socialist theory with Chinese characteristics and strive along the path of connotation, characteristic and harmonious development so as to maximally improve its talent cultivation quality and build the university into a first-class tertiary institution with distinctive characteristics and remarkable strength in China.