On October 17, 1953, a total of 53 professors across the departments of history, foreign language, physics, chemistry, and mathematics, as well as 256 professors and instructors of the College of Teacher Education were separated from the university to form the new Guangxi Teacher's College (now Guangxi Normal University). Subsequently, the majority of academic departments at Guangxi University were relocated. The university gave up its mechanical engineering department, which was one of the earliest in China, as well as its electrical engineering department. The faculty, students, and resources of these two departments were reallocated to the newly created Huazhong Institute of Technology (now the Huazhong University of Science and Technology) and other institutions. The university transferred its chemical engineering department to the South China University of Technology, and its highly regarded civil engineering department to the Central South Civil Engineering Institute (now Hunan University). The department of mining and metallurgy was sent to Central South University. The agricultural departments were relocated to Hubei province and renamed the Huazhong Agricultural University. Both Wuhan University and Sun Yat-sen University split the personnel and resources of several departments.