Approved by the Ministry of education of the people's Republic of China, the former Wuhan University of water resources and electric power (Yichang) and the former Hubei Three Gorges University were merged and established on May 25, 2000. It is a University jointly built by the Ministry of water resources of the people's Republic of China and Hubei Province. It has been selected into the second batch of "excellent engineer education and training plan" of the Ministry of education, the basic ability construction project of universities in central and Western China (phase II), and the construction project of "domestic first-class university" of Hubei Province School.The predecessor of the former Wuhan University of water resources and electric power (Yichang) is Gezhouba College of hydropower engineering, which was established in 1978. It successively belongs to the Ministry of water resources and electric power, the Ministry of energy, the Ministry of electric power industry and the State Power Corporation. In 1996, it merged with the former Wuhan University of water resources and electric power to form a new Wuhan University of water resources and electric power, which has become an important part of the "211 Project" construction university. The former Hubei Three Gorges University was formed by the merger of Yichang normal college, Yichang Medical College and Yichang Vocational University in 1996.As of December 2017, the school covers an area of more than 3000 mu, with a total construction area of 1.4 million square meters, more than 40000 teaching and scientific research instruments and equipment, with a total value of 556 million yuan; the library has a collection of more than 2.9 million paper books; there are 22293 full-time undergraduates, 4266 doctoral and postgraduate students, and 1365 international students in China; and it has a mobile post doctoral research station There are 4 first-class doctoral programs, 25 first-class master programs, and 1 second-class master program. There are 13 categories and 23 professional master programs. There are 30 colleges and 72 undergraduate programs.