Northwest University of Political Science and Law

Northwest University of Political Science and Law is located in Xi'an, a world-famous ancient city with a glorious revolutionary tradition and rich cultural heritage. It is a multidisciplinary university with distinct legal characteristics, and philosophy, economics, management, literature and other disciplines support each other and develop in a coordinated manner. The school is a national base for the education and training of outstanding legal talents, and undertakes the task of cultivating outstanding legal talents of all three types, including applied, composite, foreign-related and western grassroots. The school is the center of legal research in the northwest region and an important base for humanities and social sciences research. It has the right to confer doctoral degrees and the first postdoctoral research mobile station for first-level legal disciplines in the northwest region.

Northwest University of Political Science and Law is a multidisciplinary university with distinct legal characteristics, and philosophy, economics, management, literature and other disciplines support each other and develop in a coordinated manner. The school is a national training base for legal talents. It is one of the "five colleges and four departments" known as the national team for the training of political and legal talents. It is an important base for legal education, legal research center and humanities and social sciences research in the northwest region. It is a high-level university and first-class discipline construction university that Shaanxi Province focuses on building. It is a member unit of the "Lige Alliance" of national legal higher education and the "Chang'an Alliance" of high-level and distinctive universities in Xi'an.

The predecessor of the school was the Shaanxi-Northern Public School founded by the Communist Party of China in Yan'an in 1937. After the periods of Yan'an University, Northwest People's Revolutionary University, Northwest Political and Legal Cadre School, and Northwest Branch of the Central Political and Legal Cadre School, in 1958, the Law Department of Northwest University was transferred to form the Xi'an Institute of Political Science and Law, which was later renamed Northwest Institute of Political Science and Law and Northwest University of Political Science and Law. Since its establishment, the school has taken root in the west, formed the fine tradition of the old Yanda University of "political firmness, seeking truth from facts, courage to innovate, and hard work", forged the school motto of "rigorous, realistic, civilized, and fair", condensed the educational concept of "belief in the rule of law, Chinese stance, international vision, and civilian sentiment", and cultivated more than 160,000 high-quality professionals with both moral integrity and ability, and both moral and legal.

The school currently has 18 teaching units including the School of Philosophy and Social Development, the School of Economics, the School of Rule of Law, the School of Legal Master Education, the School of Administrative Law (School of Discipline Inspection and Supervision), the School of Criminal Law, the School of Civil and Commercial Law, the School of Economic Law (School of Intellectual Property), the School of International Law, the School of Anti-Terrorism Law (School of National Security), the School of Politics and Public Administration, the School of Marxism, the School of Public Security, the School of Foreign Languages, the School of Journalism and Communication, the School of Business (School of Management), the School of International Education, the School of Continuing Education, and the Department of Physical Education.

The school currently has more than 1,000 full-time teachers, including more than 50 people selected for the national "Ten Thousand Talents Plan" leading talent project, "Yangtze River Scholars Award Program" distinguished professors, cultural celebrities and "four batches" talents of the Central Propaganda Department, young talents in propaganda, ideology and culture, Shaanxi Province Sanqin Scholars and other central and provincial talent projects, and more than 30 experts who enjoy special allowances from the State Council, national advanced individuals in teacher ethics, national model teachers, national outstanding teachers, Shaanxi Province teacher ethics model, and outstanding teachers. The school actively promotes the system of young teachers taking up positions in practical departments, which has been highly praised by the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Education and other ministries and commissions.

The school currently has 31 undergraduate majors and more than 12,700 undergraduate students. Journalism, philosophy, and investigation are national specialty majors. Law, English, journalism, e-commerce, and law majors are selected as national first-class undergraduate major construction sites. Philosophy, economics, finance, international economics and trade, political science and administration, investigation, criminal science and technology, administrative management, marketing, auditing, human resource management, editing and publishing, radio and television editing and directing, sociology and other majors are rated as provincial "first-class major" construction sites. The courses of "Administrative Law" and "Investigation Measures" are national "first-class courses". Nine courses such as "Criminal Law", "Private International Law", and "Principles of Marxist Philosophy" have been approved as provincial "first-class courses". The school is one of the first batch of universities implementing the "Excellent Legal Talent Education and Training Program" in the country, and undertakes the task of cultivating all three types of excellent legal talents. The innovation experimental zone for the training model of legal talents is a national innovation experimental zone. There are 7 experimental training centers, and the legal experimental training center is the first batch of national experimental teaching demonstration centers. The school implements the undergraduate tutor system and builds a high-level and distinctive second classroom activity system.

The school began to recruit and train master's students in 1979. In 2012, it was approved as the first-level discipline of law "Doctoral Talent Project for Serving National Special Needs", and in 2014, it was approved as a postdoctoral research station for law. There are more than 3,700 master's students and more than 100 doctoral students. There are 7 first-level discipline master's degree authorization points, 39 second-level discipline master's degree authorization points, 9 interdisciplinary master's degree authorization points, and 9 professional degree master's degree authorization points. There are 10 provincial key disciplines and 3 provincial advantageous disciplines. In the fourth round of national discipline evaluation, law was B+; philosophy was C, ranking fourth in the northwest region. In the first national professional degree level evaluation, the master of law professional degree was "B+". In 2018, the school was approved as a first-class discipline construction university in Shaanxi Province, and the law discipline was approved as a first-class construction discipline.

The Human Rights Research Center of the University is a national human rights education and training base. It has co-built a national procuratorial public interest litigation research center with the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and co-built an education legislation research base with the Ministry of Education. There are currently two provincial key research bases of philosophy and social sciences, namely the "Collaborative Innovation Research Center for Social Policy and Public Opinion Evaluation" and the "Northwest Social Stability and National Security Rule of Law Research Center", and five Shaanxi (college) key research bases of philosophy and social sciences, namely the "Criminal Law Science Research Center", "International Law Research Center", "Local Government Rule of Law Construction Research Center", "Risk and Crisis Management Research Center", and "Military-Civilian Integration Rule of Law Guarantee and Veterans Affairs Governance Collaborative Innovation Research Center". The "Cooperative Innovation Center for the Construction of Rule of Law in Shaanxi" and the "Cooperative Innovation Center for Aviation Rule of Law Modernization" are the 2011 Collaborative Innovation Centers of the Shaanxi Provincial Education System. There are physical research institutions such as the Anti-Terrorism Research Institute, the National and Religious Research Institute, the Chinese Legal System and Rule of Law Civilization Research Institute, the Silk Road Regional Cooperation and Development Law Research Institute, the Cultural and Value Philosophy Research Institute, the Human Rights Research Center, the Military-Civilian Integration Development Research Institute, the Artificial Intelligence and Smart Rule of Law Research Institute, the Maple Bridge Experience and Social Governance Research Institute, and the Ma Xiwu Trial Method Research Institute. Among them, the Anti-Terrorism Research Institute was selected as the first batch of China Law Society Rule of Law Research Bases, and the Anti-Terrorism Research Institute and the National and Religious Research Institute were selected into the "Belt and Road" Think Tank Alliance. The academic journal "Legal Science" sponsored by the school was selected as one of the "Top 30" humanities and social sciences journals and one of the top 100 newspapers in China.

The school integrates into the construction of the "Belt and Road" and is committed to building an innovative highland for the theoretical research of Silk Road law and an important position for the exchange and dissemination of rule of law culture. The school has created a think tank platform to serve the construction of the "Belt and Road". It has established the "Silk Road Regional Cooperation and Development Law Institute" and the "China-Eurasia High-end Legal Talent Training Base" of the Chinese Law Society, and the "Regional and Country Research Center-South Asia Research Center" of the Ministry of Education. High-level foreign-related legal research institutions and talent training bases, undertake the first batch of national master of law professional degree (foreign-related lawyers) postgraduate training projects, establish Shaanxi "Belt and Road" Law School, and hold a series of international academic seminars on the "Belt and Road" legal culture dialogue between Chang'an and Rome. The school vigorously expands students' international exchange channels and establishes cooperative relations with more than 70 famous universities in the United States, Britain, Germany and other countries. Actively carry out education for international students, encourage and support teachers and students to study abroad and participate in international conferences, and continuously improve the internationalization level of talent training and the ability to participate in international competition.

The school has established the goal of building a "high-level teaching and research university with distinctive legal characteristics and coordinated development of multiple disciplines", and put forward a "three-step" strategic concept for the construction of a high-level university. At present, the school is closely focusing on the fundamental task of cultivating morality and cultivating people, continuously promoting high-quality connotation-oriented development, continuously deepening comprehensive reforms, and striding towards the goal of building a high-level teaching and research university!

(Data update as of April 8, 2022)