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About Shaanxi Normal University

Directly administered by the Ministry of Education of China, Shaanxi Normal University, a key university under China’s construction plan of “World-class Discipline” and a university under China’s Innovation Platform Construction Plan of the“985” Superior Discipline of Teacher Education, is a major base for training teachers and administrators of higher learning institutes and secondary schools as well as other high-level professionals in China, and is known as the “Cradle of Teachers” in China.

The University, situated in the ancient capital city of Xi’an, one of the four internationally renowned historical and cultural cities, was founded in 1944 under its original name “Shaanxi Provincial Teachers’ College”, and then renamed “Xi’an Teachers’ College” in 1954. In 1960, it merged with “Shaanxi Teachers’ College” to become “Shaanxi Normal University”. In 1978, it was brought under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education of China.

During its more than 70-year history in education, the University, rooted in China’s West and embracing the whole country, has developed the “Western Red Candle Spirit” and lived by the motto of “Morality, Learning, Aspiration and Action”. It has seen itself become firmly established in Western China as an influential top-tier comprehensive teacher training university, as it strives to achieve the goal of building itself to be a major comprehensive research university distinguished by its teacher education.

The current University CPC Commitee secretary is Prof. Li Zhongjun, while Prof. You Xuqun serves as the university president.

The University currently has 18,203 full-time undergraduate students and 21,501 postgraduate students, with more than 48,000 students in continuous education and long-distance learning programs, as well as about 598 international students. Over the years, more than 417,000 students have graduated from SNNU.

The University currently has more than 2,010 full-time teachers, among whom there are about 590 full professors and 820 associate professors, with 75.6% of them holders of doctoral degrees.

The University offers 18 first-category doctoral programs, 36 first-category master’s programs, one professional doctoral degree program (Doctor of Education), and 19 professional master’s programs (including nine areas in Master of Engineering).

It has 11 national and 22 provincial specialty majors, two national talent cultivation mode innovation experiment zones, and nine national and 47 provincial premium courses.

It has turned out four National Excellent Doctoral Dissertations, seven NEDD nominations, and 90 Shaanxi Provincial Excellent Doctoral Dissertations.

It has four national key disciplines, two national talent cultivation and research base in basic disciplines, three Ministry of Education Overseas Expertise Introduction Centers for Discipline Innovation, one National Engineering Laboratory, four national Teaching Experiment Domonstration Centers, one Ministry of Education humanities and social science research base, five Ministry of Education key laboratories and engineering research centers, one State Sports Administration Sports Sociology key research base, 26 Shaanxi Provincial key laboratories and engineering research centers, six Shaanxi Provincial higher institution key philosophy and social science research bases, 18 Shaanxi Provincial laboratory teaching demonstration centers, as well as 80 other research centers and institutions.

In recent years, it has received 18 national level teaching achievement awards and 183 provincial level higher education teaching achievement awards.