Quanzhou Normal University

Quanzhou Normal University is located in Quanzhou, one of the first historical and cultural cities in China and a famous hometown of overseas Chinese. The school was formerly the Normal College of Quanzhou University, which was founded in 1958. In 1998, Quanzhou Teachers College, Quanzhou Education College, and Quanzhou Normal School merged to form the new Quanzhou Teachers College. In 2000, it was officially upgraded to Quanzhou Normal University with the approval of the Ministry of Education. It is the first newly-built local provincial undergraduate university in Fujian Province. On December 5, 2014, it was selected into the Excellent Teacher Training Program. In January 2018, the school was newly added as a project construction unit for the master's degree granting and cultivation unit in Fujian Province from 2018 to 2020

Quanzhou Normal University is located in Quanzhou City, one of the three major central cities in Fujian Province. Quanzhou is one of the first batch of Chinese historical and cultural cities, the first East Asian cultural capital, and the starting point of the ancient Maritime Silk Road. Its total economic output has ranked first in Fujian Province for 22 consecutive years. The school was established in 2000 with the approval of the Ministry of Education. It is the first newly established local provincial undergraduate university in Fujian Province. It was established by merging Quanzhou Normal School founded in 1923, Nan'an Normal School in 1939, Quanzhou Education College in 1951, and Quanzhou Normal College in 1958.

In 1999 and 2001, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the State, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (then Deputy Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and Governor), visited the school twice to inspect and guide the work, and made an important instruction that "the development direction of Quanzhou Normal University is to build a multidisciplinary university, the goal is very ambitious, this is undoubtedly what we hope to see, and it is also in line with the requirements of Fujian's higher education structural adjustment."

The nearly 100-year history of running the school has been arduous, and the torch of higher education has been passed on for a century. Generation after generation of Quanzhou Normal University people have adhered to the school motto of "good learning like a spring, upright heart to greatness", carried forward the past, forged ahead, and promoted the continuous development of the school's cause. In 2004, it passed the undergraduate teaching work level evaluation of the Ministry of Education. In 2011, it was approved as a pilot unit for training master's professional degree students. In 2012, it was approved as the Fujian Overseas Chinese Education Base. In 2013, it was approved as the first batch of "2011 Collaborative Innovation Center" and Fujian Graduate Education Innovation Base in Fujian Province. In 2016, it passed the undergraduate teaching work review and evaluation of the Ministry of Education. Since 2017, it has been approved as a "double first-class" construction university in Fujian Province, a demonstration applied undergraduate university in Fujian Province, a master's degree awarding and cultivation unit in Fujian Province, a demonstration university for party building work in Fujian Province, a pilot university for comprehensive reform of "three-dimensional education" in Fujian Province, and a demonstration university for innovation, entrepreneurship and creative education in Fujian Province. It has been approved to recruit undergraduate and postgraduate students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The school has won a number of high-level honorary titles such as the National National Defense Education Characteristic School, the Fujian Province May 1st Labor Award, and the Safe Campus, and has won the provincial civilized school (civilized campus) for eight consecutive terms. Since its establishment, it has cultivated more than 200,000 outstanding talents for the society and made positive contributions to the economic construction, social progress and education development of the country and Fujian Province.

The school currently has the main campus in Quanzhou (the main campus) and two branch campuses in Nan'an and Licheng, covering a total area of ​​1,815 acres. It has 18 secondary colleges and 58 undergraduate majors. There are nearly 18,000 full-time undergraduate and graduate students. There are more than 1,400 faculty members, including more than 1,100 full-time teachers and nearly 20 full-time teachers from Taiwan. There are 3 national talents, 4 experts enjoying special government allowances from the State Council, 2 members of the Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, more than 100 provincial high-level talents such as Fujian Minjiang Scholars, Fujian Hundred Thousand Talents Project Candidates, Fujian University Leading Talents, Fujian Special Support High-level Talents "Double Hundred Plan" Candidates, 3 Fujian Higher Education Science and Technology Innovation Teams, 9 Fujian Undergraduate Teaching Teams, and 2 Fujian Postgraduate Tutor Teams.

The school adheres to the original intention of educating people, establishes the status of talent training center, and strives to build high-level undergraduate education. In recent years, it has won 1 second prize of national teaching achievements, 5 special prizes of Fujian Province teaching achievements, 9 first prizes, and 17 second prizes; 1 first prize in the National College Young Teachers Teaching Competition, 1 first prize in the first National College Teachers Teaching Innovation Competition, and 2 special prizes. The school has won nearly 10 national projects or bases, including the Ministry of Education's "Excellent Teacher" Training Program Reform Project, the Ministry of Education's Teacher Team Building Demonstration Project, the National Professional Comprehensive Reform Pilot Project, and the National Talent Training Model Innovation Experimental Zone. There are currently 2 national characteristic majors, 2 national first-class majors, 5 national first-class undergraduate courses, and more than 260 provincial undergraduate teaching engineering projects such as provincial first-class majors. The majors of navigation technology and marine engineering have passed the industry professional certification, and 5 majors such as primary education, English, and music have passed the second-level certification of the Ministry of Education's normal majors. The school was selected as a national college student innovation and entrepreneurship training program school and a demonstration and cultivation base for the practice of production and innovation integration education in Fujian Province. In the past three years, students have won more than 1,500 discipline competition awards at or above the provincial level. The entrepreneurial rate and entrepreneurial survival rate of graduates have achieved "double highs"; the employment rate of undergraduate graduates remains above 97%.

The school insists on taking discipline construction as the leader, focusing on special engineering disciplines, improving humanities and social sciences, and refining teacher education disciplines. It has 14 provincial disciplines, among which music and dance are selected as first-class disciplines in Fujian Province; 6 disciplines including chemical engineering and technology, food science and engineering, textile science and engineering, education, optical engineering, and business administration are approved as applied disciplines of higher education institutions in Fujian Province; 7 disciplines including Chinese language and literature and biology are approved as key disciplines in Fujian Province. There are currently 2 teams of tutors for master's professional degree students in Fujian Province, which are selected into the teaching case library of professional degree students in Fujian Province, and have been approved as the Fujian Provincial Graduate Education Innovation Base and the first batch of professional degree graduate joint training demonstration bases in Fujian Province. The professional degree of Master of Arts has successfully passed the acceptance of the "Talent Training Project for Serving the Special Needs of the Country" by the State Council Degree Committee, and has been approved by the Ministry of Education to recruit master's students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The school adheres to scientific research innovation and academic prosperity and development, strengthens platform construction, and improves the level of scientific research. There are 41 scientific research and innovation platforms at the provincial and ministerial level and above, including the National Language Committee Research Center, the provincial "2011 Collaborative Innovation Center", key laboratories, engineering (technology) research centers, humanities and social science bases, and characteristic new think tanks of universities. It has been selected as the first batch of think tank member units of the National Language and Writing Promotion Base and the Fujian Provincial Government Development Research Center. It has won 57 provincial and ministerial scientific research awards, including 43 provincial social science awards and 8 provincial science and technology awards. In the past five years, it has undertaken more than 50 national scientific research projects and more than 1,200 other scientific research projects.

The school adheres to the development path of "seeking support through service and development through contribution" to create a school-local development community. Formulate and implement the "Quanzhou Normal University Serving Quanzhou Economic and Social Development Action Plan" ("8641" Action Plan), build 8 philosophy and social science innovation platforms, and provide decision-making consulting services for governments, enterprises and institutions. Build 6 talent training platforms to provide intellectual support for Quanzhou's economic and social development. Cooperate with local governments such as Fengze District, Licheng District, Jinjiang City, and Taiwan Investment Zone to jointly build attached primary and secondary schools and jointly create high-quality education brands. Expand 4 international exchange platforms to serve the construction of the "Maritime Silk Road" pilot zone. Build 10 science and technology innovation platforms, connect with Quanzhou's "635" industrial system, and provide technical support for industrial transformation and upgrading. Cooperate with well-known universities such as Peking University, Tianjin University, and Donghua University to jointly build high-level disciplines, platforms, and talent teams. Carry out school-enterprise cooperation with well-known enterprises such as Sinochem Group, Sinopec, China Telecom, China Post, Greenland Group, Anta Group, Baihong Group, Panpan Food, and Gaoke Environmental Protection, deepen the integration of production and education, and jointly cultivate innovative, compound, and application-oriented talents.

The school is rooted in the profound history and culture of Quanzhou, and conducts in-depth research on southern Fujian culture and Maritime Silk Road culture, serving the inheritance and innovation of Quanzhou culture and promoting Quanzhou culture to the world. Deeply participate in the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, pioneered the Nanyin discipline at home and abroad, and carried out the discovery, protection, and inheritance of Nanyin. The school was selected as the first batch of excellent traditional Chinese cultural inheritance bases by the Ministry of Education (the first selected university in Fujian Province), and was approved as the excellent traditional Chinese cultural education demonstration base of Fujian universities. The new Nanyin work "Phoenix Seeking Phoenix" won the first prize (first place) of the Sixth Fujian Art Festival and was included in the list of key creative plays of national stage art (the first time that a national university has entered the list).

The school adheres to open education and continuously improves the level of international exchanges and cooperation. Deepen inter-school exchanges and cooperation, establish sister school relations with more than 70 foreign universities, establish teacher-student exchanges, undergraduate and master degree programs with nearly ten well-known foreign universities such as the University of Missouri in the United States and the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom, carry out sports exchanges and cooperation such as football with the Brazilian Beach Soccer Association and the Lyon Business School in France, and cooperate with the Krakow Conservatory of Music in Poland to carry out music exchanges and cooperation; cooperate with nearly ten well-known Taiwanese universities such as Yuan Ze University, Longhua University of Science and Technology, and Pingtung University to cultivate applied talents. Serving the "Belt and Road" initiative, carrying out international student education, with the support of the provincial government's international student scholarship, recruiting nearly 200 international students from more than 20 countries including Russia, Micronesia, Malaysia, Thailand, etc.; establishing an international seafarer training center to train crew members from countries along the route such as Bangladesh and Nepal. Dedicated to the international promotion of Chinese, it is one of the first two universities in Fujian Province to select Chinese volunteers for international Chinese teachers to the Philippines; joined the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office's overseas teacher project, and selected volunteers and overseas teachers to teach Chinese and spread Chinese culture in nearly ten countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. Every year, it hosts summer camps for Chinese students to learn Chinese and various types of language and cultural promotion activities, and has trained more than 1,000 Chinese students from Southeast Asia and Europe. It is the first university selected by the United Front Work Department of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee to undertake online training for overseas Chinese teachers during the epidemic, and conducts online training for local Chinese teachers and managers in more than 160 Chinese schools in the Philippines and Malaysia.

Entering a new era and embarking on a new journey. In recent years, especially since 2017, in accordance with General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on "building a multidisciplinary university" for school construction, the school has formulated and implemented a "three-step" development strategy, comprehensively promoted the construction of the "five projects", and comprehensively set off a new wave of "secondary entrepreneurship", and unswervingly moved forward towards building a distinctive first-class applied university.

(As of November 2021)