Anshan Normal University

Anshan Normal University was founded in 1958 and formally approved as a master’s degree-awarding institution in 2023. In December 2024, the provincial Party committee decided that it would adopt an administrative system of joint provincial and municipal support, with municipal administration taking the lead.
The university has three campuses, 19 schools or departments, and 1 affiliated secondary school. It has 1152 faculty and staff, including 883 full-time teachers, 32% of whom hold doctorates. More than 170 have been recognized through talent programs or honors, including the hundred-person tier of the provincial Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talents Project, outstanding young talent under the Liaoning Revitalization Talent Program, provincial program leaders, provincial distinguished teachers, provincial outstanding teachers and municipal experts with outstanding contributions. It has 20000 students of all types, including 15000 full-time students.
The university follows a disciplinary and program structure described as “one body with two wings” and actively integrates the development of disciplines, degree authorizations and academic programs. It offers master’s degrees in 1 first-level discipline and 4 professional categories, 38 full-time undergraduate admission programs, including 17 teacher education programs, and 5 higher vocational junior college admission programs. These cover 8 disciplinary categories: education, literature, science, the arts, management, engineering, law and history. Undergraduate and junior college recruitment covers 29 provincial-level administrative regions nationwide. It has 1 provincial key laboratory, 7 high-level provincial research platforms and bases, 6 provincial first-class undergraduate programs, 3 provincial demonstration programs and 5 provincial pilot programs.
The university has distinctive strengths in teacher education, and its teacher education students demonstrate strong professional capabilities. It is deepening the UUGS collaborative education mechanism and has developed close cooperation with Northeast Normal University, Capital Normal University, Lijiang Huaping High School for Girls and Kaiyuan Minzhu Education Group. It has hosted an academic symposium on the UUGS Project and research into integrated urban-rural educational development at county level. It actively runs replacement teaching support projects under the Cultural Enrichment of Xinjiang and Immersion Action initiatives, sending nearly 200 teacher education students each year to undertake teaching placements in rural and western areas. Forty percent of its teacher education graduates establish careers at the grassroots level, serving 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
The university is strengthening organized research to improve its ability to address major research challenges and serve society. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, it has received approval for 273 national, provincial or ministerial research projects and 3 research awards at provincial or ministerial level or above, published more than 600 papers in core journals or higher-level publications, and produced 75 high-quality policy advisory reports. University-enterprise cooperation is becoming closer, and commissioned research and achievement commercialization are increasing each year. In particular, relying on the Liaoning Key Laboratory for the Development and Utilization of Active Molecules from Natural Products, it studies natural product resources in the Anshan area across four directions: natural resource surveys and biotransformation; pest and disease control for natural product resources; structure-activity relationships of active chemical components of natural products; and functional food development. This work has produced substantial results.
Drawing on its humanities and arts strengths and its Chinese Studies Center, Liu Lanfang Art Research Center and Qianshan Culture Research Center, the university conducts research into regionally distinctive culture, including Confucian and Qianshan culture, the transmission of pingshu storytelling, and industrial heritage. It has received 3 National Arts Fund grants and more than 10 national, provincial or ministerial social science projects. It has published more than 20 scholarly and literary, artistic, historical and philosophical monographs. The Anshan Normal University research base of the Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies is located at the university.
The university promotes open cooperation, integration and mutual learning. It has established long-term, stable friendly partnerships with 131 universities and 28 educational and research institutions in 31 countries and regions. It has educated more than 5000 long- and short-term international students from 49 countries. It has been approved as a host institution for Chinese Government Scholarship and International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship students, and as a pilot institution for Liaoning’s university internationalization evaluation. It has established an International Chinese Language and Culture Center and a Roger T. Ames Studio, and has invited renowned domestic and overseas scholars, including Chinese Government Friendship Award recipient Roger T. Ames, to conduct academic research. It hosts signature programs such as the Belt and Road International Humanities Camp to tell China’s stories and communicate China’s voice effectively.