Founded in 1946, is a leading national research university located in Jilin province, China. It is under the direct jurisdiction of China’s Ministry of Education. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Class A Double First Class University. Currently, there are 71,920 full-time students and 6,524 faculty members in total, among which there are 2,062 professors and 1,137 doctoral advisors.

According to 2018 Evaluation and Study Report of Universities in China released by the Chinese Universities Alumni Association, Jilin University ranks the 10th among the top 100 Chinese universities. Jilin University now has 6 sub-districts and 7 campuses, covering an area of more than 6.11 million square meters. The school buildings cover an area of 2.74 million square meters. 

The CWTS Leiden Ranking table 2020 ranked Jilin University at 14th in the world based on their publications for the time period 2015–2018.[25] In 2020, it ranked 82nd among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings.[26] The university ranked 71st among the leading institutions globally in the Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables by Nature Research, that measure the high-quality research published in 82 high-quality science journals.[27] The University Ranking By Academic Performance (URAP) 2020/21 ranked Jilin University at 106th globally.