Qujing Normal University

Qujing Normal University is located in Qujing City, the birthplace of the Pearl River (i.e. the Zhujiang River and the third longest river in China), the second largest city in Yunnan, hometown of Cuan Culture, and one of the “Top Ten Livable Cities in China”. The University was ranked B in the undergraduate education accreditation by the Ministry of Education in June 2007, and it has been one of the universities enrolling high quality students in Yunnan since 2010. The University was successively named as a “National Civilized Unit” by the Central Civilization Committee in 2012 and 2015. The University passed the review and evaluation of undergraduate teaching work by the Ministry of Education in June 2017, and it was selected as a provincial-level master's degree-granting unit and a reserve list of central budgetary investment projects for the '14th Five-Year Plan' education strengthening promotion project.

Qujing Normal University has trained more than 50,000 senior applied talents for local economic and social development under the support of Party committees and governments at municipal and provincial levels since its upgrading to a bachelor-degree-granting university in 2000. The University has earned the good reputation for “taking root in the source of the long Pearl River, being the cradle for thousands of teachers and instructors”. Now, the University has become the leader of Qujing's education development, an important base for cultivating qualified teachers and a main window of advanced culture construction.

Qujing Normal University has a long history and profound cultural heritage. The history of the University can be traced back to 1907 when the “Teacher Training School” was set up, and it turned into Yunnan Provincial Third Normal School in 1912. The University was renamed as Qujing Normal School in 1956, and Qujing full-time (undergraduate) programs of Kunming Teachers College started recruitment in the school in 1977. On the basis of the school, Qujing Teachers College was established in 1978, and the college name was changed to Qujing Senior Teachers College in 1993. As approved by the Ministry of Education in March 2000, Qujing Senior Teachers College, Qujing Education College (which was established in 1984) and Qujing Normal School was merged to form Qujing Normal University. Generations of teachers and students have remained true to their original aspiration and forged ahead, thus forming the University's spirit of “Cultivating talents with joys and hardships, fostering a noble soul through persistent efforts”.

Qujing Normal University has continuously improved the infrastructure and basic conditions running the school. The University covers three campuses (the Main Campus, Gucheng Campus and Huandong Campus) with a total area of 1,399 mu (about 230.31 acres), and a school building of 378,900 square meters. The University library is stocked with over 2.7 million books and nearly 120TB e-book resources. The University's fixed assets total to RMB 901 million Yuan, including a total value of teaching and scientific research-related equipment and facilities that amount to RMB 150 million Yuan. The University has won the titles of “Safe Campus” and “Advanced Unit of Landscaping”.

Qujing Normal University has achieved remarkably in the construction of teaching staff. The University currently has 1045 in-service faculty and staff, 199 of whom are PhDs (including PhD candidates). There are 810 full-time teachers, including 94 teachers with senior titles and 252 teachers with deputy senior titles, making up 42.72% of the full-time teachers, and teachers with a Master's or doctoral degree account for over 82.09%. Among the full-time teachers, 85 are employed as master's degree graduate supervisors in universities like Shanghai Normal University, Yunnan University and Yunnan Normal University; 26 teachers are titled as national or provincial outstanding experts and teachers who enjoy special expert allowance granted by the State Council or the provincial government, and are listed as provincial middle and young aged academic and technical leaders and backup talents; and more than 20 teachers are selected into the “two plans” of Yunnan Province. In addition, the University has 6 workshops for distinguished teachers of Yunnan Province and employs 189 part-time professors and 13 foreign experts throughout the year., Zhu Min, director of the Natural History and Culture Research Center and the Qujing Ancient Fish Kingdom Museum, was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in November, 2021.

Qujing Normal University has established sound discipline and major structure with distinctive characteristics. Qujing Normal University currently has 18 teaching and research institutions and 6 teaching auxiliary institutions, and has built a considerable number of characteristic majors, forming a multi-disciplinary development pattern. There are 8 provincial-level key disciplines including 1 plateau discipline of Yunnan Province, 3 construction disciplines for Master's degree programs, and 2 key disciplines with advantages and characteristics. Besides, the University has 59 full-time undergraduate majors (including 19 teacher-training majors), and 9 adult education majors. The bachelor’s degree programs cover 9 major disciplines, namely economics, law, pedagogy, literature, history, natural science, engineering, management, and arts. The university provides 1 national characteristic (key) major for institutions of higher learning, 5 characteristic (key) majors for universities in Yunnan Province and 12 provincial excellent courses; it has 2 provincial construction projects of “Key Specialty Groups to Support Industrial Upgrading”, 1 provincial construction project for pilot universities of innovation and entrepreneurship education reform and 1 provincial construction project for an innovation and entrepreneurship education practice base respectively, 2 provincial high-level faculty construction projects, 5 province-level teaching groups，2 Huang Danian teaching teams in Yunnan Province, 3 Yunnan provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers, 2 provincial virtual simulation experimental teaching projects, and 1 provincial collaborative education program for outstanding talents in economics. There are 175 national and provincial teaching quality projects. The University was selected as the “National Language and Character Promotion Base” and became a construction unit of “Yunnan Provincial Key Marxist College”, and its 13 majors were selected as provincial first-class undergraduate specialty construction sites in 2019. Obviously, remarkable progress has been made in the construction of disciplines and specialties.

Qujing Normal University has continually improved the quality of talent cultivation. Enrolling students from 26 provinces (municipalities and regions) throughout China, Qujing Normal University presently has more than 16,000 full-time students on campus. Among its large number of well-known alumni, some representatives were Xu Wenlie, a great contributor to the national revolution and construction cause; Gui Taosheng, lyricist of the song titled “On the Taihang Mountain”; Wang Jiaben, a renowned military general during the Anti-Japanese War; Hu Yan, the winner of the title of “A National Red-Banner Pacesetter” and a representative of the 18th CPC National Congress; Guo Kuacun, the winner of the titles of “Man of the Hour for Education in Yunnan” and “Top Hundred Well-known Principals in Yunnan”; Mr. Liang Chunling, who has won the titles of “National Outstanding College Students Aiding Education” and “Man of the Hour for Education in Yunnan”; and Xu Rui, an awardee as a “National Model Teacher”. The number of students who have won national and provincial awards in varieties of academic competitions and scientific innovation competitions has increased year by year. Up to now, the students of the University have won 744 national, ministerial and provincial awards, and obtained 56 innovation and entrepreneurship funding projects at national, ministerial and provincial levels. About 30% of its graduates who are admitted to master's degree programs go to Tsinghua University, Peking University and other 'Double First-Class' universities for further study. The employment rate of the University has been maintained above 90%. The University has successively won the first prize of the provincial employment target responsibility assessment 11 times, been rated as a typical university with employment experience for college graduates in Yunnan Province and a typical university with innovation and entrepreneurship experience in the province, and been approved as 'National Training Base for College Graduates' Employment' in 2021. The “Three Sends to the Countryside” programs organized by the University to bring cultural, scientific and medical services to the rural areas have won recognition for consecutive years by Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and Youth League Central Committee. The University has been awarded the title of “Demonstration School of Socialist Core Values Education in Yunnan Province” and one of “The Second Batch of Comprehensive Reform Pilot Universities of 'Three All-round Education' in Yunnan Province”. The University ranks 387th in Shanghai Ranking’s Best Chinese Universities Ranking, 81st in western universities and 10th in universities in the province in 2020. In addition, the University was rated as “excellent” both in the comprehensive education assessment of Yunnan Province and the annual assesment of province-administrating leadership in 2019，and “excellent” in the assement of the construction of Party style and incorruptible government in 2020.

Qujing Normal University has increasingly enhanced the research and innovation capacity. The University has established one research base of the State Sports General Administration, 1 language promotion base of the State Language Committee, 1 provincial philosophy and social science research base, 4 provincial key university laboratories, one engineering research center of provincial universities, 3 provincial philosophy and social science innovation teams, 6 innovative teams of science and technology, and 2 provincial-level experimental demonstration zones for talent cultivation mode innovation. The University has undertaken 82 national research projects; published over 420 monographs, compilation works, collections of fine arts and textbooks, as well as more than 10,300 research papers; won 98 ministerial and provincial awards for outstanding achievements of varieties, 117 education and teaching awards at national, ministerial and provincial levels, 194 outstanding achievements awards of social sciences in Qujing Municipality, and 24 Qujing government awards for literary and artistic creation. In a word, a considerable number of high-level research results have been produced.

Qujing Normal University has continuously improved the ability to serve economic and social development. The University has completed more than 10 projects such as “Research on the Cultivation of Leading Industries in Qujing” and “Research on Industrial Transformation and Upgrading in Qujing”, and has undertaken several special projects like the “Blue Book of Qujing Economic Development”, providing important decision-making reference for the government and relevant departments in the past five years. The large-scale opera “The Sound of Billows” created on the basis of its alumnus Gui Taosheng to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and the opera “Footsteps of the Young” rehearsed to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army’s Long March were successfully performed and well appreciated, creating typical experience for art teaching reform and collaborative innovation. The University has successfully held the “Southwest Silk Road” and “Maritime Silk Road” tour exhibitions sponsored by the National Art Fund project “Silk Road Colorful—Watercolor Art Exhibition of Southwest Minorities”, showing the achievements of watercolor art in Southwest China and of the University's art education and talent training. It actively promotes the inheritance and innovation of Cuan culture, and conducts digital research and development of Cuan Longyan Tablet and Cuanbaozi Tablet, the “Treasure of South Steles”. “Qujing Normal University Er Cuan Peisheng Font Bank” was officially launched in 2017; “Da Cuan Jianguo Font Bank of Qujing Normal University” was launched and the “Cuan Style Calligraphy Font Bank” was first released in 2020; and the University has built the Qujing Museum of Ancient Fish Kingdom, carried out fossil research and science popularization, established an exhibition and experience site integrating scientific research, science popularization, culture and ornamental, enhanced the influence of Qujing, the 'Kingdom of Ancient Fish', and created a world-class ancient fish culture research and display business card by the cooperation with the Institute of Vertebrate Zoology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan University in 2021. The University has also built the Qujing Red Culture Exhibition Hall to be opened to the public to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and undertaken the exhibition on the theme of 'Remaining true to the Party’s original aspiration and founding mission' on the occasion of the centennial of the Communist Party of China. The University has built the Primary School Affiliated to Qujing Normal University, a full-time public elementary school, to serve basic education and help solve the problem of 'good schooling' for the people in the Economic Development Zone with the 'government-society-university-primary school' education community operating model. The primary school has enrolled the students first grade in August 2021.

Qujing Normal University has gradually deepened the international education. Qujing Normal University has established “Qujing Branch of Yunnan Preparatory College for Studying Abroad”, become one of the third batch of Chinese education bases of Yunnan Provincial People's Government. The University cooperates with overseas universities like Chiang Mai University in Thailand, Mansfield University in Pennsylvania in the United States, Watford Institute of technology in Ireland, New Zealand College of Business and Lincoln University to carry out various forms of joint talent training projects such as “2 + 2”, “3 + 1”, “3 + 1 + 1” modes. In recent years, the University has established formal exchanges and cooperation relations with many foreign universities and educational organizations in many countries and regions, including those in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Ireland etc; hired foreign teachers from the UK, the USA, Russia, Thailand, and Indonesia to teach at the university over a long period of time; recruited 1000 long-term and short-term overseas students; and established an International Chinese Language Education Center in Thailand. Thus, the internationalization of school-running has been strengthened year by year.

Qujing Normal University has fully implemented the Party's education policy and always adhered to the fundamentals of establishing morality and cultivating talents to promote the transformation and quality improvement during the period of the “13th Five-Year Plan”. The University has focused on the construction of quality and connotation, highlighted the characteristics of teacher training and deepened the comprehensive reform. It has also persisted in the culture casting soul, promoted the school management according to law, and made an all-out effort to strictly enforce the Party discipline to continuously enhance its comprehensive strength and core competitiveness. Remarkable achievements have been made in talent cultivation, scientific research, social services and cultural inheritance and innovation, which has laid a solid foundation for the further development of the University.

Entering the 14th Five-Year Plan, Qujing Normal Univerity has clearly defined the orientation of 'adhering to the teacher training base, highlighting the local and application-oriented characteristics, striving to build a first-class undergraduate education, and creating a high-level local university with distinctive characteristics', and establishing five great strategies of 'developing the university with teacher training”, “ prospering the university with distinctive characteristics”, “strengthening the university with talents”, 'embellishing the university with culture',  and 'activating the university with openess'. The university will strive to achieve new breakthroughs in talent training, scientific research and social service through high-quality connotative development. Standing on the strategic height of supporting the modernization and development process of Qujing and Yunnan, the University will strive to achieve new breakthroughs in talent training, new improvements in scientific research, new extensions in social services, new outlook on cultural heritage, further progress in external cooperation, and new improvements in conditions for running the school with the foundation of moral education as the root, strengthening governance as the key, discipline and professional construction as the leader, reform and innovation as the driving force, platform and team building as the support, and serving local economic and social development as the focus, build it into a 'diligent, progressive and harmonious University', and continuously improve its comprehensive schooling strength and social influence.

(Data statistics up to November 2021)