Hunan First Normal University is renowned as "millennium-old academy and century-old normal school." The university traces its origins to Changsha Chengnan Academy founded by Zhang Shi, a renowned Neo-Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, in 1161 AD. In 1903, it was established as Hunan Teacher Education Academy, offering modern teacher education. It was renamed Hunan Public First Normal School in 1912, Hunan Provincial First Normal School in 1949, and upgraded to a university and renamed Hunan First Normal University in 2008. In 2019, it was listed as a first-batch undergraduate admission institution in Hunan Province. In 2021, the Ministry of Education established a special plan to support its joint cultivation of graduate students with Hunan Normal University. In 2024, it was approved as a master's degree-granting institution.

The university currently has three campuses spanning over 1,300 acres. Dongfanghong Campus is located in Xiangjiang New Area of Changsha, nestled west of Yuelu Mountain and east of Meixi Lake, with picturesque campus scenery. Chengnan Academy Campus is situated in Tianxin District of Changsha, by the Xiang River and under Miaogaofeng Hill, imbued with rich historical heritage. Huanghua Campus (under construction) is located in Changsha Airport Economic Demonstration Zone, enjoying a convenient geographical location.

The university boasts a profound red culture. Mao Zedong, founding father of PRC, studied and worked here for eight years and engaged in a series of revolutionary activities, including the founding of the Communist Party of China, achieving his transformation from a young student to a professional revolutionary and from a radical democrat to a great Marxist. It also nurtured numerous national pillars such as He Shuheng, Cai Hesen, Li Weihan, Ren Bishi, and Zhang Guoji, and produced over 280 martyrs including Duan Dechang, Liu Chouxi, Yuan Guoping, and Guo Liang. Historically, it gathered renowned educators and scholars such as Xu Teli, Yang Changji, Xie Juezai, Li Da, Yi Peiji, Zhou Gucheng, Tian Han, Li Jinxi, Yang Shuda, and Xin Shuzhi, as well as outstanding Hunan talents like Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Hu Linyi, Guo Songtao, Zhang Baixi, Chen Tianhua, and Huang Xing. The university is the birthplace of Huxiang culture and one of the cradles of modern Chinese teacher education. It is also one of the birthplaces of the Chinese communist movement and the new democratic revolution, and furthermore, one of the places where Mao Zedong Thought sprouted and Marxism was sinicized. It is currently a key national cultural relic protection unit, a national patriotic education demonstration base, a national classic red tourism attraction, and one of the first batches of "Great Ideological and Political Course" practical teaching bases in China. In 1950, Chairman Mao fondly recalled, "My knowledge and learning were laid down at First Normal School. It is a good school." He also inscribed the school name "First Normal" and the motto "To be a teacher of the people, first be a student of the people." Xu Teli inscribed the school spirit as "Seek truth from facts and never be self-righteous."

The university is rooted in Hunan but faces the nation, focusing on major national strategic needs, serving basic education and regional socio-economic development, inheriting the red genes, adhering to the comprehensive development of morality, intelligence, sports, aesthetics, and labor, and cultivating composite talents with a solid foundation, practical application orientation, strong abilities, and high quality, who also possess social responsibility and innovative entrepreneurial spirit. It has 14 schools, 46 undergraduate programs, and over 25,000 students. It adheres to the main responsibility of teacher education while expanding non-teacher education; it upholds the distinctive advantages of primary school teacher education while expanding teacher education at other levels, promoting the alignment of professional chains with industrial chains, and forming five major professional groups: a teacher education professional group focusing on primary education, science education, preschool education, and ideological and political education, covering all segments and main subjects of compulsory education; an electronic information professional group centering on artificial intelligence, electronic information engineering, computer science and technology, and data science and big data technology, precisely aligning with the electronic information billion-yuan industrial cluster in Xiangjiang New Area; a liberal arts and science foundation professional group dominated by Chinese language and literature, English, mathematics and applied mathematics, physics, and chemistry; an artistic creativity professional group mainly consisting of music, dance performance, fine arts, and visual communication design; and an economic management professional group centered on marketing, financial technology, and international economics and trade. Seven majors, namely, primary education, mathematics and applied mathematics, ideological and political education, educational technology, Chinese language and literature, marketing, and musicology, have been selected as national-level first-class undergraduate program construction points. Ten majors, including science education, psychology, information and computational science, English, translation, communications engineering, computer science and technology, dance, fine arts, and physical education, have been included in provincial-level first-class undergraduate program construction points. Sixty-six courses have been recognized as national and provincial first-class courses.

The university insists on cultivating virtue through education, deepening the reform of undergraduate education and teaching, and continuously improving the quality of independent talent cultivation. It explores and implements excellent talent cultivation, with Runzhi Talent Class cultivating innovative excellent teachers, Runzhi Top Talent Class nurturing top talents in basic disciplines, and Runzhi Excellent Class developing outstanding engineers. Relying on its unique school-based red resource advantages, it deepens the reform of "Great Ideological and Political Education for Great Teachers," creating a new pattern of "Great Ideological and Political Education." It has won 4 national teaching achievement awards and 42 provincial teaching achievement awards, including the second prize for national higher education teaching achievements for the project titled "Great Ideological and Political Education for Great Teachers: The Practice of Cultivating the Soul of Red Teachers in the New Era at First Normal." Since its establishment, the university has cultivated over 120,000 outstanding teachers and various talents, becoming the backbone force for basic education and socio-economic development in Hunan Province.

The university inherits its century-old tradition of teacher education , aligns with emerging national industries, features teacher education, supports related disciplines such as electronic information, and fosters a coordinated development of disciplines and majors across education, liberal arts, science, engineering, economics, management, law, and art through multidisciplinary integration. It possesses 5 Hunan Provincial "14th Five-Year Plan" application-oriented disciplines, namely, pedagogy, Marxist theory, mathematics, arts, and computer science and technology. It currently has a accredited master's degree program in the first-level discipline of Marxist theory and 2 accredited master's degree programs in education and electronic information. It has established 38 research platforms such as provincial key laboratories, engineering centers, and postdoctoral bases. Centering on "Great Ideological and Political Education +," "Education +," and "Intelligence +," it conducts multidisciplinary collaborative research. In the past five years, it has secured nearly 100 national projects, including key projects of the Ministry of Education's Major Research Plan, key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation, and key projects of the National Social Science Fund, as well as over 1,200 provincial and ministerial research projects. It has won 1 national scientific research award and 21 provincial awards in natural science and social science, published a series of monographs in the Red Library, and received 1 "Top Ten Cases" in interdisciplinary research of Hunan Provincial Philosophical and Social Sciences and 2 "Top Ten Golden Strategies" in Hunan, with a series of representative think tank achievements providing important intellectual support for serving Hunan's socio-economic development.

The university implements a talent-strengthening strategy, adhering to the "attract, cultivate, retain, and utilize" approach in building its faculty. It currently has nearly 1,700 faculty members, including over 500 with senior professional titles and over 600 with Ph.D. degrees. It boasts 17 national and provincial teaching and research teams, including the "National Huang Danian-Style Teacher Team" of the Ministry of Education, and has 170-plus faculty members who have been selected into national and provincial talent programs such as the National Million Talents Program, National Outstanding Young Experts with Contributions, the New Century Excellent Talents Support Plan of the Ministry of Education, experts enjoying special government allowances, Lotus Scholars, and the Provincial New Century 121 Talent Project. Additionally, 123 faculty members have been selected into the school's "Runzhi Talent Plan."

The university adheres to open education, establishing friendly cooperative relationships with 24 universities in countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Russia, South Korea, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. It also conducts cooperative exchanges with domestic institutions such as Beijing Normal University, Hunan University, Shaanxi Normal University, Hunan Normal University, Capital Normal University, Xiangtan University, Fujian Normal University, and Minnan Normal University. It persists in carrying out industry-academia-research cooperation, with prominent regional service advantages. It collaborates with local governments such as Changsha City, Xiangjiang New Area, and Shenzhen City, and engages in school-enterprise cooperation with enterprises such as Zoomlion Heavy Industry, SANY Heavy Industry, and Fenghua Advanced Technology.