Qufu Normal University

Qufu Normal University was founded in Jinan in 1955 and was originally called Shandong Normal College. In May 1956, it was approved by the Ministry of Education to be upgraded to Qufu Normal College. In September of the same year, it moved to Qufu, starting the process of establishing undergraduate education. From September 1970 to April 1974, it merged with the liberal arts department of Shandong University to become the new Shandong University. In April 1974, the establishment of Qufu Normal College was restored. In 1981, it was established as one of the six key universities by the Shandong Provincial People's Government; in the same year, it was approved as one of the first universities in the country to recruit graduate students. In 1982, it obtained the right to confer master's degrees. In November 1985, the school was renamed Qufu Normal University. In 2002, the Rizhao campus was built. In 2003, it obtained the right to confer doctoral degrees. In 2004, it received excellent results in the undergraduate teaching level assessment of the Ministry of Education. Since 2012, it has been selected as a famous university with characteristics of applied talent training in Shandong Province, the second batch of national demonstration universities for innovative and entrepreneurial education, the Ministry of Education's implementation of excellent secondary school teacher training universities, the top 50 universities with typical experience in innovative and entrepreneurial education in the country, the first civilized campus in Shandong Province, a high-level university with "strong characteristics" in Shandong Province, a national civilized campus, and a Shandong Province Smart Education Demonstration School Creation Unit. Over the past 66 years since its establishment, the school motto of "never tired of learning, never tired of teaching" has been formed. At present, it has developed into a provincial key comprehensive normal university with outstanding advantages in basic liberal arts and sciences, coordinated development of multiple disciplines such as liberal arts, science, engineering and management, and distinctive characteristics of promoting excellent traditional culture and cultivating excellent teachers. In the U.S. News 2020 and 2021 World University Rankings, it ranked 86th and 73rd among domestic universities, and in the 2020 and 2021 "Soft Science China University" rankings, it ranked 92nd and 80th among local universities in the country.

The school has 5 ESI world top 1% disciplines (engineering, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, materials science), 6 first-class disciplines in Shandong Province (engineering, mathematics, Chinese history, chemistry, physics, Chinese language and literature), 4 high-level disciplines in Shandong Province (among which, education is a "peak discipline", sports, Chinese history, and mathematics are "advantageous and characteristic disciplines"), 17 disciplines were selected in the Soft Science 2020 "China's Best Discipline Ranking", and the discipline of education ranks among the top 10% in the country. There are 11 first-level doctoral disciplines, 1 doctoral professional degree authorization category, 25 first-level master's disciplines, 15 master's professional degree authorization categories, 11 postdoctoral mobile stations, and 69 undergraduate enrollment majors, forming a comprehensive discipline and professional system covering 10 major disciplines such as liberal arts, science, engineering, and law. There are 18 national first-class undergraduate professional construction sites, 3 national first-class undergraduate courses, 2 national virtual simulation experimental teaching centers, 1 national high-quality resource sharing course, 6 national characteristic professional construction sites, 1 national comprehensive reform pilot major, and 1 national off-campus practice base for college students. There are 5 provincial and ministerial collaborative innovation centers, 9 provincial key laboratories, 2 provincial engineering technology research centers, 2 Shandong Province "13th Five-Year Plan" college humanities and social sciences research bases, and 1 provincial key think tank. The Ministry of Education, the State General Administration of Sports, and the Shandong Provincial Government have established 8 provincial and ministerial research bases in our school.

The school has appointed Nobel Prize winner Mr. Ting Zhaozhong as the honorary president; there are 2,545 faculty members, including 305 professors and 657 associate professors; there are 2 dual-appointed academicians, 25 people selected for national talent projects such as the National "Ten Thousand Talents Plan", Yangtze River Scholars, National Outstanding Young Scholars, National Cultural Celebrities and "Four Batches" Talents, and National Hundred Thousand Talents Project, 2 National Teaching Masters, 1 member of the Professional Degree Education Steering Committee of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, 1 deputy director and 1 member of the Professional Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, 24 young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions to the country and Shandong Province, 11 Taishan Scholars Distinguished Professors, 18 Taishan Scholars Young Experts, 8 high-end talent experts of the provincial think tank, 37 people enjoying special allowances from the State Council, 5 national model teachers, and 5 national outstanding teachers of education master, which has brought together a high-level talent team.

The school covers an area of ​​3337.18 acres (including the expansion project of the Qufu campus under construction), with a total fixed asset value of 1.753 billion yuan, of which the total value of teaching and scientific research equipment is 1.062 billion yuan, and the library has 4.47 million paper books and 2.36 million electronic books; it publishes academic journals such as "Qilu Journal" (the second batch of excellent journals funded by the National Social Science Fund), "Journal of Qufu Normal University (Natural Science Edition)", "Magazine of Middle School Mathematics" and "Modern Chinese".

The school has always regarded talent training as its fundamental task, continuously deepened the reform of education and teaching, and created excellent education and teaching quality. Since its establishment, it has trained and sent more than 500,000 graduates to the society, and the majority of graduates have been widely praised by the society for their "solid foundation, simple style and solid business". Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the university has won 2 national teaching achievement awards, 2 special prizes of Shandong Province Teaching Achievement Awards, and 13 first prizes; it has won first prizes in the first to fifth National College Student Mathematics Competitions, and is the only university that has won first prizes consecutively along with Peking University, Fudan University, Nankai University and other universities; in the eight Shandong Province Normal Students Teaching Skills Competitions held from 2013 to 2020, it has won the "double championship" of the number of first prizes and the total number of awards six times; 520 people have won national competition awards such as "Internet+", Challenge Cup, and Mathematical Modeling; more than 1,600 undergraduates people participated in publishing scientific research papers; in the third batch of national Chinese character application level tests, our school's first-class pass rate ranked first among pilot units; original dance works won the silver medal of the 9th China Dance "Lotus Award" performance; the English major's level 8 pass rate was as high as 85%, 35 percentage points higher than the national average pass rate; the law major's judicial examination pass rate reached 42%; selected as Shandong Province's outstanding doctoral dissertations for 13 consecutive years; the employment rate of graduates has always remained at the forefront of provincial universities; and was awarded the honorary title of "National May Fourth Red Flag Youth League Committee" by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League.

The school has always attached great importance to scientific research and has achieved a large number of important results with wide influence. The "commune mathematics" in the early days of the school was praised by Chairman Mao, the ion exchange method for preparing potassium carbonate won the 1978 National Science Conference Award, and the high-performance crystal polarizing device won the 2nd prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2002. It has undertaken a large number of high-level scientific research projects including the National "973" Program, the "863" Program, and the National Key R&D Program, and has reached a high level in applied mathematics, laser polarization, electrical information, biological resource development and utilization, land planning, physical chemistry, Confucianism, educational science, sports science and other disciplines. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, it has undertaken a total of 969 vertical scientific research projects at the provincial and ministerial levels and above, with a research fund of nearly 200 million yuan, including 140 National Social Science Fund projects, including 2 major bidding projects, 1 major bidding rolling funding, and 9 key projects; 205 National Natural Science Foundation projects, 4 major science and technology projects in Shandong Province, and participated in 4 national key R&D program projects. It has won 145 provincial and ministerial scientific research achievement awards. Especially in the research of humanities and social sciences, it has unique advantages. In 2020, it won 1 first prize and 3 second prizes in the 8th Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award, ranking first among provincial universities, breaking the situation of Shandong provincial universities without a first prize for 12 years; in the past five years, the total number of National Social Science Fund projects and Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences projects ranked among the top three provincial universities, and won the first prize of Shandong Provincial Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award for 10 consecutive years. In terms of natural sciences, in 2019, it won the only second prize of the National Natural Science Award in Shandong Provincial Universities; in 2019 and 2020, it won the first provincial natural science award for two consecutive years, and the natural index ranked 83rd in the country.

The school adheres to the tradition of Chinese practical learning and earnestly fulfills the university's function of serving the society. From the "earth distillation kettle" in the 1950s to the optimal solution of "jumping nose ridge" in the 1970s, to the "Changqing model" in the 1980s and the sustainable development strategy model of the Yellow River Delta in the 1990s, it has had an important impact on economic and social construction. In particular, the "optimization method" and "coordination method" of our school's Operations Research Institute played an important role in supporting the construction of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, and won the National Science and Technology Progress Special Award in 1978. In recent years, the school has actively served the major projects of Shandong Province's transformation of new and old kinetic energy, actively connected with the "top ten" industries, participated in the construction of Shandong Province's cultural and technological integration demonstration base, Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Belt, Yellow River Delta High-efficiency Ecological Economic Zone, and Luxi Economic Uplift Belt, implemented the service local action plan, and achieved significant results in Shandong Province's new rural construction, land use planning, Yellow River Delta ecological agriculture comprehensive development, South Four Lakes ecological environment protection and biological resource utilization, and excellent traditional culture communication. Since the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", 230 horizontal projects have been approved, with a project fund of more than 60 million yuan, and more than 30 think tank consulting reports have been adopted by provincial and ministerial governments and above.

The school focuses on relying on the unique historical and cultural resource advantages of Confucius' hometown to form distinctive advantages in inheriting and innovating excellent traditional culture. The school insists on infiltrating the essence of traditional culture into the whole process of education and teaching, insists on cultivating people with moral integrity, pays attention to cultural education, and builds a general education system of "cultivating people with culture", which has accumulated and formed a fine teaching style, learning style and school spirit with distinct humanistic characteristics. It has formed characteristics and advantages in the field of Confucius and Confucianism research, and has established the only bachelor, master, doctoral and postdoctoral Confucianism talent training mechanism in China. The discipline of special history (history of thought) with Confucius and Confucianism as the main research direction is a doctoral degree authorization point and a superior and characteristic discipline in Shandong Province, and has established a postdoctoral mobile station. It has jointly applied with Shandong University to build a provincial and ministerial collaborative innovation center for Confucian civilization, and has established three provincial and ministerial research bases, including the "Confucius and Shandong Cultural Power Province Strategy Collaborative Innovation Center" and the "Shandong China Diplomatic Heritage Research Base". Since 2013, 192 provincial and ministerial-level projects in the field of Confucianism and traditional culture have been approved, including 3 major bidding projects of the National Social Science Fund, such as "Integration and Research of Archives and Documents of Confucius Mansions in Successive Dynasties and Construction of Full-text Database" and "Research on Shangshu Studies". 5 achievements have been selected into the National Philosophy and Social Science Achievement Library, and 3 studies have been selected into the first batch of National Social Science Fund unpopular "unique learning" projects. It initiated and planned the construction of the only comprehensive thematic museum with teacher culture theme and teacher ethics education characteristics in the country-China Teacher Museum, which was selected as one of the ten "Ministry of Education Teacher Ethics Construction Bases" in the country, and was approved as the only "China-Foreign Youth Exchange Base" in the country. Together with the Provincial Department of Education, it has built the Shandong Provincial Teacher Excellent Traditional Culture Education Base and the Shandong Provincial Excellent Traditional Culture Inheritance and Development Research Guidance Center.

The school is one of the first batch of foreign students designated by the Ministry of Education, and is a university for the International Chinese Teacher Scholarship of the Ministry of Education's China-Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center and the Shandong Provincial Government Foreign Student Scholarship Project. It has been selected into the "Provincial-School Joint Training Program" for government-sponsored study abroad and the Shandong Province "Double Hundred Foreign Experts Program". There are two Confucius Institutes in Canada and South Korea. Over the years, the school has adhered to the academic policy of inclusiveness and eclecticism, and has widely absorbed the achievements of diverse civilizations with a broad mind and open vision. It has established inter-school friendly relations with 87 universities in nearly 20 countries including South Korea, Japan, the United States, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc., and has established extensive and in-depth cooperation in the fields of joint schooling, mutual exchange of teachers and students, and cultural and academic exchanges.