Shanxi Normal University

Shaanxi Normal University is a normal university directly under the Ministry of Education. It is one of the first batch of "double first-class" universities in the country. It is an important base for the country to train teachers and educational management cadres and other senior professionals in colleges and universities and secondary schools. It is known as the "cradle of teachers".

The school has a long history of running schools. Its predecessor was the Shaanxi Provincial Normal College established in 1944. It was renamed Xi'an Normal College in 1954. In 1960, it merged with Shaanxi Normal College and was named Shaanxi Normal University. In 1978, it was directly under the Ministry of Education. Over the past 78 years since its establishment, the school has always resonated with the destiny of the nation and has been closely linked to the development of the country's education cause. It has always adhered to the main responsibility and main business of teacher education, embraced the ambition of strengthening the country through education, and with its unswerving loyalty and selfless dedication to the country and the nation, it has forged the "Western Red Candle Spirit" of "taking root in the west, being willing to dedicate, pursuing excellence, and educating the country", nurtured an excellent group of teachers and students of "two generations of role models", trained more than 500,000 graduates of various types for the country, and provided batches of high-quality, professional, innovative and high-quality teachers for basic education in the western region.

The school is located in the ancient capital of Xi'an, covering an area of ​​more than 2,800 acres, and has two campuses, Chang'an and Yanta. Chang'an Campus is the main campus of the school, mainly responsible for the education and training of undergraduates in the second, third and fourth grades and postgraduates; Yanta Campus is mainly responsible for the teaching of undergraduate first-year basic courses and general courses, as well as teacher education, continuing education, distance education, teacher cadre training, and international student education. The Chang'an Campus is modern, open and magnificent, while the Yanta Campus is simple, elegant and beautiful. The school has been awarded the title of "Civilized Campus" by the Ministry of Education and the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government.

The school has a graduate school and 22 colleges (departments), a basic experimental teaching center and a national education college (preparatory education). There are more than 2,010 full-time teachers, including more than 590 professors, more than 820 associate professors, more than 510 doctoral supervisors, and more than 990 master's supervisors. The school has 18,203 full-time undergraduates, 21,501 graduate students (including 10,350 full-time graduate students and 11,151 part-time graduate students), and 598 international students of various types. The collection of books is 4.08 million, including more than 250,000 ancient books, and 268 various document databases have been introduced. It has the Hongzhu School History Museum and the first comprehensive education museum in China (including the China Education Museum, Women's Culture Museum, History and Culture Museum, and Calligraphy and Painting Art Museum). It has an attached middle school, an attached primary school, and a kindergarten. The attached middle school is a century-old famous school, a key middle school in Shaanxi Province, and the first batch of demonstration high schools in Shaanxi Province. The attached primary school and kindergarten are provincial demonstration primary schools and kindergartens. The school publishing house is a comprehensive publishing and media organization that integrates books, periodicals, electronic audio-visual, digital publishing, radio and television program production, and educational and cultural services.

The school has a complete range of disciplines and strong comprehensiveness. It covers 12 disciplines including philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, medicine, management, art, and interdisciplinary disciplines. It has 1 national "double first-class" construction discipline (Chinese language and literature), 4 national key disciplines, 23 first-level disciplines authorized to confer doctoral degrees, 37 first-level disciplines authorized to confer master's degrees, 1 doctoral professional degree authorization point (Doctor of Education), 20 master's professional degree authorization points, 18 postdoctoral research mobile stations, and 4 higher education discipline innovation and intelligence bases. Eight disciplines, including chemistry, materials science, agricultural science, general social science, engineering, computer science, environment/ecology, and plant and animal science, are among the top 1% in the world in ESI.

The school adheres to the goal of cultivating top talents with all-round development and high-level innovative talents, continuously deepens the reform of education and teaching, and improves the quality of talent cultivation. There are 71 undergraduate majors, including 27 national first-class undergraduate major construction sites, 7 Shaanxi first-class major construction sites, 11 national characteristic majors, and 22 Shaanxi characteristic majors. It has 9 national quality courses, 8 national quality video open courses, 8 national quality teacher education resource sharing courses, 5 national quality resource sharing courses, 11 national first-class virtual simulation experimental teaching courses, 8 national first-class offline courses, 4 national first-class online courses, 2 national first-class online and offline hybrid courses, 4 national ideological and political demonstration courses, 18 national teaching achievement awards, 1 national excellent teaching material award, 2 national master of education professional degree teaching achievement awards, 6 national master of arts graduate students excellent graduation achievement awards, 5 new liberal arts research and reform practice projects of the Ministry of Education, 4 new engineering research and practice projects of the Ministry of Education, 4 national experimental teaching demonstration centers, 3 national virtual simulation experimental teaching centers, and a national talent training model innovation center. There are 2 new experimental areas, 2 national basic discipline talent training and scientific research bases, 2 reform projects of the Ministry of Education's Excellent Teacher Training Program, 2 reform projects of the Ministry of Education's "Humanities Experimental Class" and "Science Experimental Class" top talent training, 1 base of the Ministry of Education's Basic Discipline Top Student Training Program 2.0, 2 national joint training demonstration bases for master's degree students in education, and 1 national off-campus practice base for college students. It is the first batch of high-level international talent training innovation and practice bases, the second batch of demonstration universities for deepening innovation and entrepreneurship education reform of the Ministry of Education, the national college cultural quality education base, the national language and writing promotion base, the Ministry of Education's excellent traditional Chinese culture inheritance base, the national language and writing standardization demonstration school, the national college ethnic preparatory education base, and the national college student social practice advanced collective.

The school insists on strengthening the school with talents, focusing on the construction of a high-level talent team, and strives to build a first-class faculty team. There are 94 national talents, including 76 people selected for major national talent projects, including 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11 national distinguished professors, 18 distinguished professors of the Ministry of Education, 2 winners of the National Outstanding Young Scientist Fund, 9 people selected for the National Hundred, Thousand and Thousand Talents Project, 6 cultural celebrities and "four batches" of talents, 2 young and middle-aged science and technology innovation leaders in the Ministry of Science and Technology's Innovative Talent Promotion Plan, 25 national young scholars, and 2 leaders of the Huang Danian-style teacher team in national universities. In addition, there are 8 dual-appointed academicians, 5 young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions to the country, 2 national teaching masters, and 3 chief experts in Marxist theory research and construction projects. There are 294 provincial and ministerial talents, including 54 Shaanxi Province Distinguished Professors, 6 leaders of the "Sanqin Scholars" innovation team, 30 Shaanxi Province Young Scholars, 6 "Six Ones" talents in the Shaanxi Provincial Propaganda, Ideology and Culture System, 12 Shaanxi Province Young and Middle-aged Science and Technology Innovation Leaders, 28 Shaanxi Province Young Science and Technology Stars, 22 Provincial Teaching Masters, 15 Shaanxi Province Ordinary Colleges and Universities Young Outstanding Talents Support Program, 9 Shaanxi Province Hundred Young Literary and Art Artists Support Program, 11 Shaanxi University Humanities and Social Sciences Young Talents Support Program, and 101 other provincial talent programs.

The school vigorously implements the strategy of strengthening the school through scientific research, and its scientific research strength continues to improve. There are 1 national engineering laboratory, 3 key laboratories of the Ministry of Education, 2 engineering research centers of the Ministry of Education, 1 key laboratory of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 1 key laboratory of the Press and Publication Administration, 1 research and development professional center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 24 Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratories and Engineering Technology Research Centers, etc. There is one humanities and social sciences research base of the Ministry of Education, four country and regional research centers of the Ministry of Education, one education legislation research base of the Ministry of Education, one key sports sociology research base of the State Sports General Administration, one national theory and policy research base of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, one "Belt and Road" country and regional research center of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, one research base of the Chinese nation community of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, one key research base of the All-China Women's Federation, one research base of the National Tourism Administration, and 20 key research platforms of humanities and social sciences in Shaanxi Province. During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the school was approved for 296 national social science fund (including major) projects, 400 provincial and ministerial humanities and social science projects; 542 National Natural Science Foundation projects, 468 Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Plan projects, and undertook 20 major (key) national projects in science and engineering. More than 100 social science achievements have won provincial and ministerial awards, including 9 achievements that won the 8th Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Award of Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education, and 2 achievements that were selected into the National Philosophy and Social Science Achievement Library; 58 scientific and technological achievements have won provincial and ministerial scientific and technological awards, including 1 second prize for Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements of Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education, 1 special prize from the State Archives Administration, and 1 first prize for Shaanxi Science and Technology Award. The school hosts academic journals such as "Journal of Shaanxi Normal University" (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition, Natural Science Edition), "Contemporary Teacher Education", "Chinese Historical Geography Theory Series", and "Chinese Art Education". "Journal of Shaanxi Normal University" (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) is one of the first 11 journals selected for the "Famous Journal Project" of the Ministry of Education.

The school adheres to the normal-oriented school-running orientation, and has outstanding advantages in teacher education. Over the past 78 years since its establishment, the university has gradually formed a teacher education system with the co-development of various forms of teacher education, including "national publicly funded normal schools, national excellent teacher program normal schools, ordinary normal schools, and local commissioned normal schools". A total of 30,500 publicly funded normal school students have been enrolled, accounting for a quarter of the total number of publicly funded normal school students enrolled in the country; among them, 21,500 publicly funded normal school students have been enrolled in the western region, accounting for 70% of the total number of publicly funded normal school students enrolled in the university, ranking first among the ministry-affiliated normal universities. It is a national collaborative innovation experimental base for teacher development, a training base for the Ministry of Education's "National Training Program" primary and secondary school famous teacher pilot project, and a basic strengthening training base for minority high-level backbone talents and postgraduates of the Ministry of Education. It has a national teacher teaching development demonstration center, a basic education curriculum research center of the Ministry of Education, a training and research center for ideological and political work teams in colleges and universities of the Ministry of Education, a teacher training center for Northwest colleges and universities of the Ministry of Education, and a training center for Northwest education management cadres of the Ministry of Education. The scope of education services radiates across the country, and has completed tasks such as high-level training team training, high-level primary and secondary school backbone teacher training, and high-quality preschool teacher training in 23 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country. Deeply participate in the development of regional education, take the lead in establishing the Teacher Education Innovation and Development Alliance of Western Normal University, establish the Shaanxi Teacher Development Research Institute, carry out the "Hundred Schools Tour" service docking activities for basic education in the west, and lead the high-quality development of education in Shaanxi and the west.

The school adheres to the international development strategy and continuously increases foreign exchanges and cooperation. The school has established friendly cooperative relations with more than 190 universities and educational institutions in 37 countries and regions including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan, etc., and carried out various forms of exchanges and cooperation. Actively responding to the national "Belt and Road" initiative, it took the lead in establishing the Silk Road "Teacher Education Alliance", "Humanities and Social Sciences Alliance" and "Book Archives Publishing Alliance". Vigorously promote the international two-way flow of students, develop more than 160 substantive student exchange projects, and select a large number of students to go abroad for exchange and study every year. Students studying in the principal for a short period of time come from more than 110 countries and regions around the world.

Based on the new development stage, the school will fully implement the party's education policy, adhere to the socialist direction of running schools, implement the fundamental task of cultivating morality and cultivating people, carry forward the "Western Red Candle Spirit", actively serve the country's major strategic needs, follow the "two main lines, one fundamental, one key" development ideas, accelerate the improvement of discipline construction, adhere to the main responsibilities and main business of teacher education, vigorously promote talent and team building, comprehensively deepen education evaluation reform, and strive to achieve accelerated development and high-quality development, and build the school into a world-class normal university with Chinese characteristics as soon as possible.

(The above data is as of March 31, 2022)