Huaqiao University  was established in Quanzhou, Fujian province, a famous hometown of overseas Chinese.

In 1997, the Jimei Overseas Chinese Tutoring School at Jimei School Village in Xiamen, Fujian, was incorporated into the university. In 2003, the university was qualified as a university of excellence by the Ministry of Education in its first undergraduate teaching performance assessment. In 2017, Huaqiao University was selected in the province's plan to develop world-class universities and world-class disciplines, also known as the Double First-Class Initiative.

Dedicated to recruiting students from abroad, the university aims to serve overseas Chinese and spread Chinese culture. So far, over 200,000 students of all levels have graduated from the university, among whom around 50,000 currently live overseas and have become friendship envoys in promoting communication and cooperation between China and the countries where they live. 

Huaqiao University has 28 colleges with 94 undergraduate programs, among which 10 have achieved the engineering education certification. It also has 27 master's programs in first-level disciplines, two master's programs in second-level disciplines and 20 professional master's programs, together with eight doctoral programs in first-level disciplines, two doctoral programs in second-level disciplines and five postdoctoral research centers. 

The university offers 12 discipline categories, including philosophy, economics and law, forming a coordinated discipline system that combines arts with science, integrates science with engineering and couples engineering with management. In 2018, the university ranked 28th in the comprehensive universities list of Chinese best subjects and 86th in its general list. The list coves 4,999 disciplines from 460 universities on the Chinese mainland, among which are 93 first-level disciplines. HQU had 19 disciplines listed in 2017, and 20 in 2018, ranking 83rd on that list.