The university was founded on 27February 1903 by Ma Xiangbo and French Jesuits. In 1905, Ma resigned to establish Fudan University, and Aurora was thereafter run by French Jesuits until the Communist Revolution. From 1908 onwards, it was located in Shanghai's French Concession.[2] "By the 1940s, the institution had grown to become one of the largest, if not the largest, among Shanghai’s private universities and included faculties of Law, Medicine, Sciences, Applied Sciences, and Literature, along with a Preparatory Course,Women’s College, nursing program, dental training, a renowned natural sciences museum (Le Musée Heude), and a number of associated collèges and lycées in Shanghai and other cities throughout Jiangnan."[3]
^Jean-Paul Wiest, "Bringing Christ to the nations: shifting models of mission among Jesuits in China." Catholic Historical Review 83.4 (1997): 654-681.
^ Ruth Hayhoe, "Towards the Forging of a Chinese University Ethos: Zhendan and Fudan, 1903-1919," The Chinese Quarterly, 94 (June, 1983), 323-341.
^Steven Pieragastini, “A French University in China? The Forgotten History of Zhendan University (L’Universitél’Aurore, 震旦大學 Zhendan daxue)” Outre-Mers, Revue d'histoire (No. 394-395, 1er semestre), p. 87.