Shaanxi Normal University is located in the ancient capital of Xi’an and is a key university directly under the Ministry of Education. Its predecessor was the Shaanxi Provincial Normal College, established in 1944. It was renamed Xi’an Normal College in 1954 and merged with Shaanxi Normal College in 1960 to become Shaanxi Normal University. In 1978, it became a directly affiliated normal university under the Ministry of Education. In 2005, it was selected as one of the universities for the national “211 Project.” In 2008, it was chosen for the national “985 Project” Teacher Education Innovation Platform. In 2017, it was selected as one of the first universities for the national “Double First-Class” initiative, embarking on a new journey to build a world-class normal university rooted in China.
Eight decades of trials and tribulations, with generations passing on the torch. The university has always remained committed to its core responsibility of teacher education. It has tackled difficulties for the cause of national education, laid the foundation for the establishment of the nation through education, taken the lead in the tide of national development through education, and strived to build a strong educational nation. With unwavering loyalty and selfless dedication to the country and the nation, it has forged the unique “Western Red Candle and Two Generations of Role Models” spirit. To date, the university has cultivated over 510,000 graduates of various types, continuously providing high-quality, professional, and innovative teachers for basic education in the western region, earning the reputation as “the cradle of teachers.”
The university comprises 27 colleges (departments) and one basic experimental teaching center. It has over 19,000 full-time undergraduate students, more than 12,200 graduate students, and over 600 international students. It has two campuses: Chang’an and Yan’ta. The Chang’an Campus is modern, open, and grand, while the Yan’ta Campus is elegant, ancient, and picturesque. Both campuses have been recognized as civilized campuses by the Ministry of Education. The university’s library is a national key protection unit for ancient books, with over 4.16 million volumes of printed books, over 2.68 million e-books, 92 databases of Chinese and foreign academic literature resources, and 268 sub-databases. The university has established the Red Candle University History Museum and the first comprehensive education museum in China. It also runs an affiliated middle school, primary school, and kindergarten. The affiliated middle school is a key middle school and the first batch of model high schools in Shaanxi Province, while the primary school and kindergarten are provincial model schools and kindergartens.
The university adheres to connotative development, with continuously improving academic and professional standards. It was one of the first universities in China to grant doctoral and master’s degrees. It currently offers 12 disciplines, including philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, medicine, management, art, and interdisciplinary studies. It has 25 first-level doctoral degree authorization disciplines, 35 first-level master’s degree authorization disciplines, 2 doctoral professional degree authorization points, 25 master’s professional degree authorization points, 69 undergraduate majors, 40 national first-class undergraduate major construction points, 6 Shaanxi provincial first-class undergraduate major construction points, and 20 postdoctoral research stations. It has 1 national “Double First-Class” construction discipline (Chinese Language and Literature), 2 Shaanxi provincial “Double First-Class” construction disciplines, and its School of Marxism is a national key School of Marxism. Thirteen disciplines have entered the top 1% of the ESI world rankings, with three disciplines (chemistry, materials science, and agricultural science) entering the top 2‰ of the ESI world rankings.
The university is committed to cultivating virtue and talent, with continuously improving quality of talent cultivation. It is one of the first pilot universities for the “National Excellence Plan,” a demonstration university for deepening innovation and entrepreneurship education reform by the Ministry of Education, a national base for cultural quality education of college students, and a national base for inheriting excellent traditional Chinese culture by the Ministry of Education. It has established one national and one provincial base for the cultivation of outstanding students in basic disciplines under the “2.0 Plan,” two national bases for basic discipline talent training and scientific research, four national experimental teaching demonstration centers, three national virtual simulation experimental teaching centers, and two virtual teaching rooms by the Ministry of Education. It has received 18 national teaching achievement awards and two awards in the first National Textbook Construction Awards. It has 50 national first-class undergraduate courses, nine national quality courses, eight national quality video open courses, five national quality resource-sharing courses, eight national quality resource-sharing courses for teacher education, three national bilingual teaching demonstration courses, and four Ministry of Education course ideological and political demonstration courses. It has been approved for nine Ministry of Education “New Liberal Arts” and “New Engineering” research and reform projects, two Ministry of Education excellent teacher training plan reform projects, and one Ministry of Education national excellent teacher special plan implementation project. Students have achieved excellent results in national competitions such as “Internet Plus” and “Challenge Cup.” Four dissertations have been selected as national excellent doctoral dissertations, and 118 dissertations have been selected as Shaanxi provincial excellent doctoral dissertations.
The university adheres to a talent-strong strategy, with continuous strengthening of faculty construction. It currently has 3,442 faculty and staff members, including 679 professors, 874 associate professors, and 1,697 doctoral and master’s degree supervisors. In recent years, the university has innovated talent introduction and cultivation mechanisms, accurately implemented the talent-strong strategy, and continuously strengthened the talent pool. It has over 100 national-level talents and 300 provincial-level talents. Among them, there is one academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one foreign academician, seven double-appointed academicians, more than 20 national and provincial-level teaching masters, and two national university Huang Danyan-style teaching teams.The university is committed to scientific and technological innovation, with continuously enhanced strategic service capabilities. It has one national engineering laboratory, three Ministry of Education key laboratories, two Ministry of Education engineering research centers, one Ministry of Education key research base for humanities and social sciences, four Ministry of Education country and regional research centers, one Ministry of Education education legislation research base, one Ministry of Culture and Tourism key laboratory, one National Archives Administration key laboratory, one National Commission for Ethnic Affairs “Belt and Road” country and regional research center, one National Commission for Ethnic Affairs Chinese nation community research base, one National Women’s Federation key research base, two National Sports bureau research bases, and more than 70 other provincial-level platforms. Since the “13th Five-Year Plan,” the university has successively undertaken more than 160 major projects of the National Natural Science Fund, National Key Research and Development Plan projects, and major projects of the National Social Science Fund. It has won two first prizes and ten second prizes for outstanding achievements in humanities and social sciences by Ministry of Education universities, 53 first prizes for outstanding achievements in philosophy and social sciences in Shaanxi Province, and five achievements selected into the “National Philosophy and Social Sciences Achievements Library.” It has also won one National Innovation and Excellence Award, one first prize for technological invention by the Ministry of Education, three second prizes for natural sciences, and four first prizes for science and technology in Shaanxi Province. Over 650 consultation reports have been adopted by provincial and ministerial-level departments and above.
The university insists on taking teacher education as its foundation, with continuously highlighted characteristics. It has always regarded running a normal education as its primary responsibility and strives to build a first-class normal education. It has now formed a diversified normal education system, including “national free normal education, national excellence plan normal education, general normal education, and local commissioned training normal education.” Normal student training covers the entire educational stages of preschool, primary, and secondary education, as well as all levels of undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees. It has admitted over 38,700 national free normal students, accounting for one-fourth of the total number of national free normal students. Among them, over 27,200 national free normal students were admitted in the western region, accounting for 70% of the total number of national free normal students admitted by the university, ranking first among directly affiliated normal universities. The university is a national teacher education development demonstration center, a national teacher development collaborative innovation experimental base, a Ministry of Education university ideological and political work team training and research center, and a Ministry of Education new era middle school and primary school master teacher training base. Focusing on cutting-edge issues in teacher education reform and key issues in teacher education development, the university has conducted in-depth educational training research, striving to build a high-level think tank to serve national and local teacher education strategic decision-making. It has actively participated in regional education development, taking the lead in establishing the Western Normal University Teacher Education Innovation and Development Alliance, the Shaanxi Teacher Development Research Institute, and continuously conducting “hundred schools” research activities to connect with basic education in the western region and “Red Candle Seedling” border school education activities, leading the high-quality development of education in the western region.
The university adheres to an open approach to education and continuously deepens international exchanges and cooperation. It has successively established long-term friendly cooperative relationships with over 200 universities and educational and research institutions in more than 40 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Kazakhstan. Actively participating in and promoting the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” education initiative, the university was the first to take the lead in establishing the Silk Road Teacher Education Alliance, the Alliance of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Alliance of Libraries, Archives, and Publishing. In cooperation with Samarkand State University in Uzbekistan, it has established the “Overseas Research Station of Shaanxi Normal University Uzbekistan Research Center” and the “Overseas Chinese Language Internship Base.” It has been approved to establish four national “Discipline Innovation and Talent Introduction Bases for Higher Education Institutions,” continuously enhancing the internationalization of its faculty and achieving notable results in international scientific research cooperation. The university has established platforms for international talent cultivation such as the “New Youth Global Competence Talent Training Program” and the “Innovation and Practice Base for High-Level International Talent Training.” It is a base for Chinese language education under the State Council’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, a recipient institution for scholarship programs such as the Chinese Government Scholarship and the International Chinese Language Teacher Scholarship, and it also has a testing site for the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK).
