The Department of Fine Arts at the School of Arts, Southeast University, inherited the drawing and crafts departments and art departments of the former National Central University. It officially began enrolling undergraduate students in 2005 and was selected as a first-class undergraduate program construction point in Jiangsu Province in 2021. Currently, it offers an undergraduate program in Fine Arts and a professional master's degree program. The Department of Fine Arts, adhering to the school motto of "Striving for Perfection," promotes the educational philosophy of "Recognizing the World through Science and Serving the Nation with Talent." It insists on combining practice and theory, with art history and theory, and art techniques as its core foundation, supplemented by diverse applied skills. It is committed to cultivating specialized talents with good art skills, solid professional skills, profound humanistic qualities, and innovative thinking, who possess the basic ability to engage in artistic creation and research, and are capable of applying their knowledge to practical work in related fields.

The Fine Arts major adheres to the discipline construction goal of applying knowledge to practice and serving society. It maintains a professional positioning that combines practice and theory, focusing on the social and cultural needs of inheriting excellent Chinese culture and promoting national development. Based on art history and theory, and art techniques, it offers professional directions such as painting creation and research, art history and theory, and communication planning. Currently, there are 13 full-time faculty members, including 3 professors and 4 associate professors. Over 90% of the faculty hold doctoral degrees, and over 50% have overseas study experience or postdoctoral research experience. The department has multimedia studios, ancient painting copying studios, modeling laboratories, and multiple off-campus practice bases. The department houses research centers such as the Southeast University Chinese Painting Research Institute and the "Southeast University Chinese Painting Research Base," a key research base for Jiangsu universities. Faculty members have achieved significant results, leading numerous major national and key research projects, as well as many provincial and ministerial-level research projects, and have repeatedly won international, national, and provincial honors. They innovate exhibition formats, holding several influential Chinese art exhibitions overseas, promoting dialogue between Chinese art and world civilization. Leveraging Southeast University's advantages in "disciplines, research, and faculty," the department fosters synergistic development across disciplines, forming a unique and powerful teaching force. It has established a four-in-one talent cultivation mechanism: "student growth as the goal, teaching team building as the foundation, teaching and research platform construction as the driving force, and professional development as the focus." Adhering to the talent cultivation principle of "broadening horizons, strengthening foundations, enhancing abilities, focusing on direction, and refining qualities," many of its outstanding graduates have become backbone forces in my country's art practice and research fields.