Introduction to Huaibei Normal University

Huaibei Normal University (HNU) is located in Huaibei City of Anhui Province which is one of China’s important energy bases and a nationally designated garden city. The university was founded in 1974 as Anhui Normal University at Huaibei. Approved by the State Council in December, 1978, the university was assigned to be administered by the former Ministry of Coal Industry and started to enroll students from all over China. It was authorized to confer bachelor degrees in 1981. After September of 1998, the university operated in a management system of “being jointly constructed by both the central and Anhui municipal governments, but mainly administered by the latter”. In 2000 and 2007, the university passed the qualification and level evaluations of undergraduate education conducted by the Ministry of Education with grade A respectively. The university was authorized to confer master degrees in 2003 and also to confer a professional degree -- Master of Education (MEd) in 2009. In 2009, HNU obtained the approved program of constructing the university into one with the right to confer doctoral degrees and was also approved to establish postdoctoral posts in Anhui Province. In the same year, it signed an agreement with Anhui University to jointly cultivate doctoral degree candidates.

The university campus covers an area of about 140 hectares with the building area 462,600 m² and 235,100 m² for teaching, research and administration. The total value of equipments for teaching and research is more than 100 million yuan and the total number of paper books in the university library is about 1,520,000, and there is also a modern electronic document system and a computer-based net system in the university. Now the university has 16 schools, 48 undergraduate specialties with 4 state-level characteristic specialties, 2 provincial-level characteristic specialties, 3 provincial-level key specialties and 4 provincial-level model specialties in teaching reform. Up to now 1 first-category and 21 second-category disciplines have been authorized to confer master degrees. Besides, the university has been approved to confer a professional degree -- master of education and has now 5 postdoctoral posts and 19 research institutes (centers).

There are 12,000 full-time students at school with 596 postgraduate students. The number of full-time teachers in the university is 792, and 177 of them have got their doctoral degrees and 659 have master degrees. 442 teachers have been conferred with senior professional titles, among whom 107 have been entitled professors. Among the teachers there are 13 “State-level Excellent Teachers” or “May Day Labor Medal” winners, 1 national “March 8 Red Banner Pacesetter”, 6 provincial-level star teachers, 8 outstanding university disciplinary talents in Anhui Province, 27 university disciplinary leading teachers among the young and middle-aged in Anhui Province, 57 excellent young and middle-aged university teachers in Anhui, 4 provincial-level new outstanding teachers and 13 teachers enjoying special government allowance.

The university now has 4 provincial-level key laboratories, 5 provincial-level key disciplines, 1 provincial-level scientific and technological innovation team, 1 provincial-level teaching team, 4 provincial-level model centers for experimental teaching of foundational courses, 1 provincial-level experimental center for innovation of talent cultivation mode, 8 provincial-level courses with priority in construction, 19 provincial-level competitive courses. The university has already undertaken 71 teaching research projects at provincial-level or above during the last 5 years, among which there are 18 key ones. In the latest two provincial-level teaching achievement evaluations, HNU won 19 prizes with 5 first prizes and 6 second prizes. Within the last 5 years the university’s total research fund is 150 million yuan. It has undertaken 54 state-level and 225 provincial-level or ministerial-level research projects, got 168 academic books and 4,200 papers published with 268 papers in the journals included in the indexes SCI, EI and ISTP, and won 25 research awards at provincial or ministerial level and 2 at state level.

HNU also attaches importance to the international exchange and cooperation. It has established interscholastic exchange and cooperation relationships with more than 20 key universities and research institutes within China, and Western Kentucky University in the United States and La Trobe University in Australia. A group of well-known scholars have been invited to teach or give lectures (short-term) in HNU and the teachers and researchers have been exchanged as visiting scholars between HNU and its sister universities.

During the last thirty-five years, the university adhered to the socialist direction for running a school, and has established such educational concepts: people oriented and student oriented in education, and talent oriented and teacher oriented in school-running. A distinctive school-running orientation has been formed in the university, i.e., developing teacher education with priority with consideration of multi-disciplinary construction and concentrating on talent cultivation in Anhui Province with a consideration of facing the whole country. Today, HNU has been constructed into a regular undergraduate university which provides both undergraduate and post graduate education with a large scale in school-running, and covers almost all the disciplinary categories and has possessed distinctive features in school-running. The university has been entitled 20 times as “National Advanced Unit in University Students’ Social Practice in China” and “Excellent Service Team” by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Education, and the Central Committee of the Youth League. Other prizes and awards the university has won are as follows: “National Advanced Party Organization at the Basic Level”, “Advanced Unit of Anhui Province”, “Advanced Unit of Talent Cultivation in Anhui Province”, “Advanced Unit in Employment Work Among the Regular Undergraduate Universities in Anhui Province”, “Advanced Unit in Management of Scientific Research in Anhui Province”, “Garden-like Unit of Anhui Province”, etc. With the spirit of being realistic and pioneering, HNU is now steadily advancing toward the goal of becoming a normal university with multi disciplines and distinctive features.

(Information updated in October, 2009)