Southwest University of Political Science and Law

Southwest University of Political Science and Law is located in Chongqing, a famous historical and cultural city and the only municipality directly under the Central Government in the central and western regions. It is the earliest higher political and legal institution established in New China. It is one of the first national key universities identified by the State Council after the reform and opening up, a university jointly built by the Ministry of Education and the Chongqing Municipal People's Government, one of the first national bases for the education and training of outstanding legal talents, a university entrusted with the Chinese government scholarship for international students in China, and a university for the basic capacity building project of colleges and universities in the central and western regions.

The predecessor of the school was the Southwest People's Revolutionary University, which was founded in 1950 and Marshal Liu Bocheng served as the president. In 1953, the Southwest Institute of Political Science and Law was established based on the Department of Political Science and Law of the Southwest People's Revolutionary University. Mr. Guo Moruo wrote the name of the school. The first dean was General Zhou Baozhong, a national hero of the Anti-Japanese War and the former commander-in-chief of the Second Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces. In 1978, the school was identified as a national key university by the State Council; in 1993, it was approved by the State Council Academic Degrees Committee as a doctoral degree-granting institution; in 1995, it was renamed Southwest University of Political Science and Law with the approval of the former State Education Commission. In 2003, it was approved by the State Council Academic Degrees Committee as the first batch of national doctoral degree-granting institutions in the first-level discipline of law; in 2004, it was approved by the Ministry of Personnel to set up a postdoctoral research mobile station in law; in 2012, it was approved by the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Education to become the first batch of outstanding legal talent education and training bases, and became a university jointly built by the Ministry of Education and the Chongqing Municipal People's Government; in 2016, it was selected as a university in the national "Basic Capacity Construction Project for Colleges and Universities in Central and Western China"; in 2017, it was selected as a first-class discipline construction university in Chongqing; in 2018, it was approved by the State Council Academic Degrees Committee to obtain a doctoral degree authorization point in the first-level discipline of journalism and communication, achieving a zero breakthrough in the doctoral degree of journalism and communication in Chongqing, and also achieved a zero breakthrough in the doctoral degree of journalism and communication in law universities across the country; in 2021, the State Council Academic Degrees Committee agreed that our school added a doctoral degree authorization point in the first-level discipline of national security.

After 72 years of hard work, the school adheres to the school motto of "erudition, practice, morality, and law", adheres to the school philosophy of "teaching, talent, scientific research, and law", and gradually condenses the spirit of "caring for the world, self-improvement, unity, and rigorous and realistic". It has formed a multi-disciplinary coordinated development with law as the main subject, philosophy, economics, literature, management, engineering, etc., from undergraduate to master, doctoral graduate education, as well as continuing education, international student education and other multi-level and multi-type talent training pattern. The school has the qualifications to recruit recommended students, high-level athletes, mainland Tibet classes, mainland Xinjiang classes, joint admissions of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese, Hong Kong exempted students, Macau recommended students and Taiwan exempted students. In the 72 years since its establishment, it has trained more than 300,000 talents of all levels and types for the country. It is the university with the most legal talents in the country. There are 8 alumni serving as members of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, and nearly 90 alumni serve as provincial and ministerial leaders. There are more than 50 graduates of XiZheng who have served or are currently serving as the country's chief, first-level or second-level justices and prosecutors. In the law schools of well-known universities across the country, such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Wuhan University, and China University of Political Science and Law, graduates of XiZheng are engaged in teaching and research. In recent years, the student debate team has won championships in the World Chinese Debate Championship, the National Student "Learn the Constitution and Talk about the Constitution" College Student Debate Competition, the National WTO Moot Court Competition and other activities, and the student art troupe has won first prizes in the National College Student Art Exhibition many times. Students have won more than 170 provincial and ministerial level championships in major events such as the China College Beach Volleyball Championship, the National College Volleyball League, the National College Wushu Sanda and Tai Chi Push Hands Championship, and the National Cheerleading League. The school's innovation and entrepreneurship education work has entered the top 100 innovation and entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities across the country.

The school currently has three campuses, including Shapingba Campus, Yubei Campus and Baosheng Lake Campus, covering a total area of ​​more than 3,000 acres. Among them, the Yubei campus is the undergraduate and graduate education and teaching center, the Shapingba campus is the continuing education and cadre training base, and the Baoshenghu campus is the scientific research and innovation and entrepreneurship base. There are more than 24,000 students and more than 2,000 faculty and staff. Among them, there are more than 600 teachers with senior professional and technical positions, including talents of the National "Ten Thousand Talents Program", talents of the "National Hundred Thousand Talents Project", national cultural celebrities and "four batches" talents, young scholars of the Yangtze River Scholars Award Program, candidates of the "New Century Excellent Talents Support Program", national outstanding senior jurists, national senior translators, top ten outstanding young jurists in the country, experts with special government allowances from the State Council, candidates of the "Chongqing Talents" Program, candidates of the Chongqing "Baiyu Scholars" Program, and Chongqing "Liangjiang Scholars" Distinguished Professors. In recent years, the school has emerged with advanced collectives such as "National Advanced Grassroots Party Organization", "National Advanced Collective in the Education System", "National Huang Danian-style Teacher Team in Colleges and Universities", "National Worker Pioneer", "National May 4th Red Flag Youth League Committee", "National March 8th Red Flag Collective", "National Party Building Benchmark Department", "National Party Building Model Branch" and advanced individuals such as "National May 1st Labor Medal", "Most Beautiful College Counselor", "National May 1st Women's Model", and "National College Counselor of the Year".

The school currently has five departments, including the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Political Science and Education, the Faculty of Economics and Management, and the Faculty of New Sciences. There are 13 colleges including the School of Civil and Commercial Law (School of Intellectual Property), the School of Economic Law (School of Ecological Law), the School of Law, the School of Administrative Law (School of Supervision Law), the School of International Law, the School of Artificial Intelligence Law (School of Applied Law), the School of Criminal Investigation (School of National Security), the School of Business (School of Supervision and Auditing), the School of Economics, the School of Foreign Languages, the School of Journalism and Communication (School of Integrated Media), the School of Politics and Public Administration, and the School of Marxism. It has set up a Human Rights Research Institute, a Judicial Appraisal Center, and a Local Legislation Research Institute.

The school currently has 30 undergraduate majors, including 6 national first-class undergraduate majors in law, journalism, political science and administration, ideological and political education, radio and television, and administrative management, and 9 provincial first-class undergraduate majors. There are 3 first-level discipline doctoral degree authorization points in law, journalism and communication, and national security, 10 first-level discipline master's degree authorization points and 10 master's professional degree authorization points. Economic law and litigation law are national key disciplines. Law, journalism and communication, applied economics, political science, public administration, philosophy, Marxist theory, business administration, national security (interdisciplinary), Marxist theory and party regulations (interdisciplinary), translation (professional degree authorization point), auditing (professional degree authorization point) and other 12 disciplines are Chongqing's "14th Five-Year Plan" key disciplines, among which the law discipline was selected as Chongqing's first-class discipline. In 2017, in the fourth round of discipline evaluation by the Ministry of Education, our school's first-level law discipline was shortlisted as an A-level discipline together with the law disciplines of four universities including Peking University and Tsinghua University, becoming the only discipline in Chongqing to be shortlisted as an A-level discipline. In 2018, in the first national professional degree level assessment, our master of law professional degree authorization point was rated A-level together with Tsinghua University, China University of Political Science and Law and other universities, and it is also the only professional degree authorization point in Chongqing that has entered the A-level.

The school has a national high-end think tank construction and cultivation unit (co-built by the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Education, and the first member of the Ministry of Education’s University High-end Think Tank Alliance), a provincial and ministerial co-construction collaborative innovation center, the Ministry of Education’s Country and Regional Research Center, and the China Law Society’s Rule of Law Research Base. It has also co-built research bases with the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Audit Office and other units, as well as 38 provincial and ministerial-level "2011" collaborative innovation centers, key research bases for humanities and social sciences, Chongqing’s new think tanks, and Chongqing’s popular science bases. The school’s Judicial Appraisal Center is the only national appraisal institution in the central and western regions. Since 2015, the school has obtained nearly 1,700 vertical scientific research projects at the provincial and ministerial levels or above, including 45 major national key projects and 153 national social science fund projects in law, ranking among the top universities of the same type in the country.

The school adheres to the strategy of opening up education to the outside world, and has established exchange and cooperation relations with more than 190 universities or institutions in nearly 40 countries and regions, and carried out more than 130 student exchange programs. It was selected into the "Excellent Undergraduate International Exchange Program" and "National Construction of High-level University Public Graduate Program" of the Ministry of Education, and was selected into Chongqing's internationalized characteristic universities and "Baiyu Overseas Talent Introduction Program". More than 20 short-term academic course programs for international students in China have been organized in cooperation with well-known universities in the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, Australia, Belgium, Israel and other countries. There are currently two Sino-foreign cooperative education programs, including the undergraduate law education of Coventry University in the UK and the master of law program of Case Western Reserve University in the United States. It is the only university in the west that undertakes a Sino-foreign cooperative dual degree program in law. The school's academic education for international students in China covers three levels: undergraduate, master and doctoral. It has launched a series of "Study in Xizheng" brand projects, including the ASEAN Talent Doctoral Program, the "Chinese Law" English Master's Program, and the China-Cambodia Overseas Cooperation Undergraduate "2+2" Program.

In October 2018, Chen Min'er, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, visited the school and encouraged the school to give full play to its own advantages, keep up with the pace of the times, actively adapt to the requirements of big data intelligent development, strive to create a world-class university and world-class disciplines, and cultivate more outstanding legal talents for the country.

In December 2018, the Ministry of Education and the Chongqing Municipal People's Government signed an opinion on jointly accelerating the construction of first-class universities and first-class disciplines, emphasizing the need to "continue to implement the joint construction of Southwest University of Political Science and Law by the Ministry of Education and the Chongqing Municipal People's Government."

Standing at a new historical starting point, the school adheres to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implements the Party's education policy in the new era, does not forget the original intention of cultivating morality and cultivating people, keeps in mind the mission of educating people for the Party and the country, and adheres to the work concept of having a sense of direction in the heart, a sense of mission in work, and a sense of gain for teachers and students. We will continue to promote high-quality connotation development, characteristic development and "double first-class" construction, focus on cultivating socialist builders and successors with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics and labor, and make every effort to write the "endeavor pen" for the development of the cause of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, actively integrate into the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Economic Circle, and strive to "build a national first-class, internationally renowned, distinctive, and outstanding research-oriented high-level university"!

(Updated on March 10, 2022)