Northeast Normal University

On October 25, 1945, Chairman Mao Zedong met principal school and college leaders of Yan’an University and instructed them to move to northeastern China and establish “a new type of Northeast University.” Northeast University was founded in Benxi, Liaoning, in February 1946 as the first comprehensive university established by the Communist Party of China in the Northeast. It settled in Changchun, Jilin, in July 1949 and was renamed Northeast Normal University in April 1950. It became one of the first national “211 Project” priority development universities in September 1996, received Ministry of Education approval for a graduate school in June 2004, and was selected for the national “985 Project Innovation Platform for Advantageous Disciplines” in teacher education in 2007. It was among the first national “Double First-Class” universities selected in September 2017.

It has Renmin Street and Jingyue Street campuses. It has over 15000 full-time undergraduates, over 15000 master’s students, over 3000 doctoral students and over 700 international students. It has over 3000 faculty and staff and over 1700 full-time teachers, including 560 professors and 657 associate professors. Its 21 schools or departments cover 12 disciplinary categories. It offers 72 undergraduate programs, including 46 national first-class undergraduate development sites and 3 Ministry of Education Top Students in Basic Disciplines Training Program 2.0 bases. It has 24 first-level doctoral authorizations, 6 professional doctoral categories, 36 first-level master’s authorizations, 25 professional master’s categories and 24 postdoctoral research stations. Its 6 national “Double First-Class” disciplines are Marxist theory, education, world history, chemistry, statistics, and materials science and engineering, placing it 19th nationally by number selected. It has 5 national key disciplines: ideological and political education, principles of education, world history, cell biology and ecology. In the Ministry of Education degree center’s fourth discipline evaluation, it received 6 Category A ratings, including 1 A+, and 15 Category B ratings.

Education and teaching are the university’s foundation. Over more than 70 years, it has developed a distinctive commitment to serving basic education and is known as “the cradle of the people’s teachers.” In the 1950s, renowned educator and former president Cheng Fangwu proposed serving primary and secondary education, and the university pioneered correspondence education among Chinese higher normal institutions. In the 1980s, it actively served rural basic education through the nationally recognized “Changbai Mountain Path.” In the 1990s, it implemented the Excellent Teacher Project to train outstanding basic education teachers. In the new century, it launched the Educator Training Project and explored a new U-G-S teacher education model. It was approved for the country’s only provincial-ministerial jointly developed collaborative innovation center in teacher education. Both the Excellent Teacher Project and new U-G-S model received first prizes in the National Teaching Achievement Awards for higher education. It hosts the National Basic Education Experimental Center, Ministry of Education Kindergarten Principal Training Center and Ministry of Education Northeastern Higher Normal Faculty Training Center.

Research is the basis for strengthening the university. It has 21 national or ministry-level scientific innovation platforms, including state key laboratories, national engineering laboratories, national field scientific observation and research stations, joint national-local engineering laboratories, a national applied mathematics center, Ministry of Education key laboratories and engineering research centers. It has 10 ministry-level humanities and social science platforms, including key Ministry of Education research bases and country and regional studies centers. In recent years, it has received 4 second prizes in the National Natural Science Awards: 2 in materials science, 1 in statistics and 1 in chemistry. It received 6 first prizes in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds of the Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Awards for Higher Education Institutions in humanities and social sciences: 4 in history, 1 in Marxist theory and 1 in education.

The university has partnerships with 275 universities and research institutions in over 30 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea, Japan and Russia. It has 6 university discipline innovation and talent introduction bases and 4 Confucius Institutes. It established Northeast Normal University Rutgers Newark Institute with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in the United States and led 12 Chinese and Mongolian universities in forming the China-Mongolia University Alliance. Central ministries and agencies, including the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and the ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs, have established an International Chinese Language Teacher Training Base, Chinese Language and Culture Education Base, Foreign-Aid Education Base and China-ASEAN Education and Training Center here. Its Preparatory School for Chinese Students to Japan, jointly operated by the Chinese and Japanese governments, is an important base for the national talent strategy and China-Japan people-to-people exchanges.

Many renowned experts and scholars have worked and lived here: poet Gong Mu, also known as Zhang Songru, lyricist of the Military Anthem of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army; writers Xiao Jun and Wu Boxiao; literary historian Yang Gongji; linguist Sun Changxu; historians Li Xun, Ding Zemin and Lin Zhichun; educator Chen Yuanhui; musicians Ma Ke and Lü Ji; pathologist Bai Xiqing; mathematician Zhang Dexin; nuclear physicist Wang Lin; geographer Ding Xizhi; ornithologist Fu Tongsheng; biologist and Chinese Academy of Sciences academician Hao Shui; Yang Zhongxiu, a founder of school physical education in the People’s Republic; mass gymnastics director and artist Yang Ruixue; and “red theorist” Zheng Derong. Over more than 70 years, it has carried forward its revolutionary heritage and spirit of “strengthening teachers to serve the country, seeking truth and creating.” It has trained over 300000 graduates of various types and levels. Outstanding educators include Lu Jiaxi of Baotou No. 9 Middle School, who solved a world-famous mathematical problem and received a first prize in the National Natural Science Awards; Feng Zhiyuan, the frontier teacher honored by Moving China; National Model Teacher Guo Lihua; National Role Models in Teaching and Education Shi Ningzhong, Gao Hang and Dou Guimei; and Ma Xianhua, one of China’s Ten Outstanding Teachers. Other distinguished graduates include ecologist and academician Zheng Guangmei, geographer and academician Liu Xingtu, physicist and academician Sun Changpu, optoelectronic functional materials scholar and academician Liu Yichun, and writer Zhang Xiaotian. Its “four solid qualities”—firm convictions, solid scholarship, plain character and practical work—have gained wide recognition.