TheDepartment of Forensic Science at College of Basic Medical Sciences, Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University has a long historical standing as well as a rich and profound cultural background in the field of forensic science. Its course of forensic medicine was taught as early as 1920. Initially, the faculty team of forensic science was within the Department of Pathology and the independent teaching and research section of forensic science was established in 1951. The first graduate student in forensic science finished the training and graduated in 1987 from Xiangya School of Medicine. After Xiangya School of Medicine merging into Central South University in 2000, the teaching and research section of forensic science was transformed into theDepartment of Forensic Science at College of Basic Medical Sciences in Oct 2002. Doctorate and master degrees awarding units was authorized in 2014 and 2008, respectively. In 2011, the enrollment of undergraduate student in forensic science was approved by the Ministry of Education and the first batch of undergraduate student was enrolled in 2013.In2020, the undergraduate program of forensic science was elected into the “dual 10,000 Project” of the Ministry of Education to support the development of first-class undergraduate major. Aiming at training elites in forensic science to serve national strategies and the conception of “rule of law China”, a pathbreaking concept of “triple E” was applied totheundergraduate training, which is studying major course earlier, participatinginforensic appraisal earlier andlearningentrepreneurship & innovation earlier.

The total number of staff in theDepartment of Forensic Science was 14 as of 2021, including nine teaching and research faculty members, five doctor student advisors, and six master student advisors. TheDepartment of Forensic Science offers 11 subject courses within the scope of forensic science, an earliest batch national first-class undergraduate course and two Hunan provincial first-class undergraduate courses. The department established a live online seminar named “Blue shield cloud”, a co-teaching mode with the cooperation of university faculty and police medical examiners as well as a student fellowship sponsored by Xiangya Forensic Center. Besides, theDepartment of Forensic Science has built student training platform with the First Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security as well as the Municipal Public Security Bureau of Beijing, Zhengzhou, Changsha, etc.

In the recent five years, the faculty fromDepartment of Forensic Science received more than ten national research funds, published over 140 research papers with more than 30 papers published on the first quartile journals according to Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The graduate students from this department were awarded more than ten President Scholarships (Outstanding award and Innovation award) and National scholarships. Five graduate students received the honor of excellent graduate of Central South University and four graduate students received the honor of excellent graduate of Hunan province. The thesis of one graduate student was selected for Hunan provincial thesis award.

As the forensic appraisal practice platform of forensic pathology, forensic genetics, forensic clinical medicine and forensic toxicological analysis, Xiangya Forensic Center is the leading institution of forensic appraisal in Hunan province, which passed China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) in 2014andwas chosen by the Ministry of Justice as the only appraisal institution of citizen unnatural death in Hunan province. In 2020, Xiangya Forensic Center received the honor from the Ministry of Justice as “National leading institution of legal service”.