Shaanxi Normal University

　　Widely known as the cradle of teachers, Shaanxi Normal University(SNU) is one of the 6 normal universities directly affiliated to the State Educational Ministry and an important base of training higher and secondary educational　workers and educational administraters.
　　SNU was founded in 1944 respectively as Department of Educational Science, College of Language and Literature, Northwest University, and as Shaanxi Provincial Teachers School, which were later incorporated into Teachers College of Northwest University. In 1954, it was separated from Northwest University as an independent teachers college, named Xi’an Teachers College. In 1960, it was again merged with Shaanxi Teachers College and became Shaanxi Normal University. The University came to be directly subordinate to Educational Ministry in 1978. Over half a century since its foundation, under the direction of such eminent senior educators as Liu Zeru, Li Mian and Guo Qi, SNU has made great strides in development and become known both in Shaanxi and throughout the country with joint efforts of generations of broad teachers and workers. Now it has grown into a first-class comprehensive normal university with a complete set of disciplines and training facilities. Up to now SNU has trained more than 80,000 graduates of all disciplines for the nation and established itself with fine school spirits, namely, “Be Diligent, Noble, Honest and Creative”. Under the leadership of the present president, Professor Fang Yu, and general Party secretary, Professor Jiang Xiule, the Universiyty now admits students from 31 provinces(municipalities and regions)throughout the nation.
　　SNU is located in Xi’an, one of the 4 towns best-known for cultural history the world over, covering an area of nearly 2,000 mu. The old campus lies in the midst of several historical relics, the Great Wild Goose Pagoda standing to the east, the Qujiang Lake lying to the south and the Round Mound of the Temple of Heaven sitting just within the campus, where the emperors in the Tang Dynasty offered sacrifices to the Heaven. Known as “Shida, the place of scenery” among higher learning institutions in Xi’an and awarded “Civilized Campus” by Educational Ministry, the campus of the University boasts of excellent environment with green shade everywhere. The new campus, situated in “Western China Centre of Colleges” in the county of Chang’an, is under efficient construction.
　　 SNU now consists of 16 colleges(departments), which offer 50 undergraduate subjects, and 63 disciplines conferring doctor’s or master’s degrees. It manages one national key discipline, 7 provincial key disciplnes, 2 national research and training bases of basic disciplines, a ministerial research base of humanistic sciences and 42 research centres(institutions). Subordinate to the University are such training institutions as College of Continuing Education college, College of Network Education college, College of Teachers and Cadres Training, Technic and Vocational Training College, and Xi’an International Chinese College. Besides, such academic societies and organs have their headquarters on the campus as Northwest Advanced Teachers Training Centre, Northwest Educational Administrating Cadres Training Centre, Ministerial Centre of Basic Curricula Reform and Research, UN Asian Board Northwest Library and Data Centre, China Tang History Society, China Ancient Capital Association, etc.
　　SNU employs a faculty of 2,482 workers, of which 644 are of higher professional ranks. Now 50% of its teachers have obtained their doctor’s or master’s degrees, so “groups of doctors” are taking shape in such disciplines as chemistry, mathematics, biology, history, geography, and Chinese language and literature. Moreover, the University boasts of an academician of China’s Academy of Science, a National specialist of Outstanding Contribution, 42 doctoral tutors, a position for specially-engaged professors of the Yangtze Scholar Prize Project, a candidate to the 1st- and 2nd-grade of the “National Training Project for 10,000 Excellent Professional Workers”, and 8 candidates to the “Provincial Training Project for Excellent Professional Workers”. In recent years, it has been active in adjusting the personnel policy by inviting some 100 eminent scholars at home to be concurrent professors, among whom are 10 academicians.
　　SNU now accommodates a total of 24,852 students of different kinds, of which are 9,764 undergraduates, 1,078 postgraduates, 9,900 adult students, 147 international students and 3,952 students of other training types. Since SNU has long regarded teaching quality as its utmost concern and maintained consistent efforts to carry out teaching reform, the quality of its undergraduate training keeps rising annually. Its graduates have been highly appreciated by the employers in every part of the country for their solid disciplinary foundation, a wide horizon of knowledge and a profound ability of innovation. For several years running, SNU has stood first on the list of the nationwide normal institutions in the rate of once-for-all employment, keeping a record of over 95%.
　　The University is of considerable strength in scientific and academic research. During the 9th five-year plan, it undertook a total of 534 scientific and academic research projects, 225 of whose results won prizes with 513 textbooks and 5108 academic papers published. Acccording to the statistics by China Science and Technology Information Institution, during the 9th five-year plan, SNU took a place before No. 62 among all higher learning instituions and the 3rd or the 4th place each year among all normal universities in China in the number of papers appearing in the SCI Source Journals. Especially in 2000, it published 71 papers in those journals, taking the 39th place among all the higher learning instituions in the country.
　　As one of the attractions on the campus, the University’s library is the biggest of its kind in northwestern China in collection of books, totalling 2,010,000 in all. Besides, the University edits and publishes a series of high-quality academic journals, such as “The Journal of Shaanxi Normal University”, “the Continuing Education Journal of Shaanxi Normal University” and “the Collected Essays of Chinese Historical Geography”, to mention only a few. The most widely known of them is “the Journal of Shaanxi Normal University”, both social sciences edition and physical science edition of which stand on the list of the “Array of China’s Journals”, the latter labelled as one of the “National Highest-quality Journals of Social Sciences”. Moreover, the 11 magazines and newspapers of essential education study edited and published by the University’s Magazine House stand first on the list of all their kinds in the country in quantity of subscription. As one of the 10 university presses with gross sales over ￥100,000,000, the University’s press has edited and published some 2,200 varieties of books, achieving favorable social benefits and financial profits.
　　SNU has been playing an active part in promoting international academic transaction and cooperation. It has established intercollegiate fraternal and cooperative relations with more than 20 universities in America, Britain, Japan, Australia, Canada and South Korea and trained nearly 2,000 international students.
　　Attached to the University are a middle school, a primary school and a kindergarten for the purpose of teaching experiment. The attached middle school is one of the key ones in Shaanxi Province and the attached primary school and kindergarten are each one of the provincial models of their respective kinds.
　　SNU is one of the foreruuners of higher learning institutions in China in undertaking a reform program of rear service socialization. Now it has established a successful approach towards rear service reform, widely known as “Shaanxi Normal University’s Mode”, which has made an extensive effect all over the country.
　　Under the lofty aims of “normality, comprehensivity and eminence”, Shaanxi Normal University is taking advantage of the opportunity of western economic development to comprehensively raise the quality of teaching, the level of scientific and academic research and the ability of serving the society so as to rank among the first-class comprehensive normal university, both teaching-oriented and reseach-oriented, in our country in the new century.