Toweringly standing in the East, rooted in Yan'an. On October 25, 1945, Chairman Mao Zedong met with the key leaders of Yan'an University and instructed the school to move northeast and establish a "new type of Northeast University." In February 1946, Northeast University was established in Benxi, Liaoning, becoming the first comprehensive university created by the Communist Party in the northeastern region. In July 1949, it was relocated to Changchun, Jilin, and renamed Northeast Normal University in April 1950. In September 1996, NENU one of the first universities, was given priority in construction in the "211 Project". In June 2004, the graduate school was established with the approval of the Ministry of Education. In 2007, it was selected as a national "985 Project Innovation Platform for Dominant Disciplines". In September 2017, NENU was among the first batch of universities selected for the national "Double First-Class" Initiative.
Operating on two campuses, the university offers a comprehensive range of disciplines. NENU currently has over 15,000 full-time undergraduate students, more than 15,000 master's students, over 3,000 doctoral students, and around 700 international students. There are over 1,700 full-time teachers, including 560 professors and 657 associate professors. The university comprises 21 schools, covering 12 disciplinary categories, with 82 undergraduate majors. NENU has 46 majors selected as national first-class undergraduate program construction sites and 3 bases for the Ministry of Education's national training program 2.0 for top students in basic disciplines. There are 23 doctoral programs of the first-level disciplines,1 doctoral program of professional degrees, 34 master’s programs of the first-level disciplines, and 25 master’s programs of professional degrees. There are 24 post-doctoral research stations.
The university has six national "Double First-Class" disciplines, including Marxism, education, world history, chemistry, statistics, and materials science and engineering, ranking 19th nationally in the number of selections. NENU also has five national key disciplines in ideological and political education, principles of education, world history, cell biology, and ecology. In the fourth round of discipline evaluation by the Ministry of Education's Degree Center, six disciplines were rated as Class A (including one A+), and 15 as Class B.
With distinctive characteristics and remarkable achievements, the university places education and teaching as its foundation. Over the past 70 years, it has developed a distinct characteristic of "serving basic education" and is known as the "cradle of the people's teachers." In the 1950s, the renowned educator and former president of the university, Cheng Fangwu, proposed the educational ideology of serving primary and secondary education, pioneering China's higher teacher correspondence education. In the 1980s, NENU actively served rural basic education, establishing the acclaimed "Changbai Mountain Road." In the 1990s, NENU implemented the "Excellent Educator Project" to cultivate outstanding teachers for basic education. In the new century, NENU initiated the "Educator Training Project" and explored "A New Model of U-G-S Teacher Education," establishing the only national co-constructed and collaboratively innovated center for teacher education. The "Educator Training Project" and the "A New Model of U-G-S Teacher Education" have won the National Higher Education Teaching Achievement First Prize. The National Basic Education Experimental Center, the National Training Center for Kindergarten Principals, the Ministry of Education, and the Northeast Teachers Training Center for Institutions of Higher Learning, Ministry of Education are located at NENU.
As a research-intensive university, it has achieved fruitful results in scientific research. The university has 18 national-level and ministerial-level scientific and technological innovation platforms, including national engineering laboratories, national field scientific observation and research stations, national-local joint engineering laboratories, national applied mathematics centers, national international joint research centers, and Ministry of Education key laboratories. NENU has ten ministerial-level humanities and social science research platforms, including the Ministry of Education’s key research base for humanities and social sciences, and the Ministry of Education’s research center for country and regional studies. In recent years, research results have won four-second prizes in the National Natural Science Award, including two in the field of materials science, one in statistics, and one in chemistry. It has also won six first prizes in the seventh and eighth rounds of the Outstanding Achievements Award for Scientific Research in Higher Education (Humanities and Social Sciences), including four in the field of history, one in the field of Marxist theory, and one in the filed of education.
The university is committed to open education and has established cooperative relationships with more than 275 universities and research institutions in over 30 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Russia, etc. NENU has six Overseas Expertise Introduction Centers for Discipline Innovation and four Confucius Institutes. It has cooperated with Rutgers University in the United States to establish Northeast Normal University-Rutgers Newark Institute and has led 12 universities in China and Mongolia to establish the "Association of Universities of China and Mongolia." Central government departments such as the State Council's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have established the "International Chinese Language Teachers Training Base," the "Chinese Culture Education Base," the "Education Aid Base," and the "China-ASEAN Education Training Center" at NENU. The China-Japan joint government-funded preparatory school for Chinese students studying in Japan, located at NENU, is an important base for serving the national talent training strategy and promoting Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges.
The university has produced a galaxy of outstanding talents, including well-known experts and scholars both domestically and internationally. Poet Gong Mu (Zhang Songru), the lyricist 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, educationist Chen Yuanhui, musicians Ma Ke and Lv Ji, pathologist Bai Xiqing, mathematician Zhang Dexin, nuclear physicist Wang Lin, geographer Ding Xizhi, ornithologist Fu Tongsheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and biologist Hao Shui, one of the founders of school physical education in New China Yang Zhongxiu, and the choreographer and artist of Grand Group Calisthenics Yang Ruixue, and "Red Theoretical" scholar Zheng Derong have all worked and lived here. Over the past 70 years, the university has inherited the red gene, promoted the spirit of NENU "strengthening teachers for the country, seeking truth and fostering creativity, and has cultivated more than 300,000 graduates at all fields and all levels, producing a large number of outstanding talents in the field of education. Among them, a significant number of outstanding individuals have emerged in the field of education. Notable examples include Lu Jiaxi, a teacher from Baotou No. 9 Middle School, who achieved the remarkable feat of solving a world-renowned mathematical problem and was honored with the National Natural Science First Prize. Other notable figures include Feng Zhiyuan, a touching educator on China's border regions, Guo Lihua, a national exemplary teacher, Gao Hang and Dou Guimei, role models in the national education sector, and Ma Xianhua, one of the nation's top ten teachers. These individuals have made significant contributions and have been recognized for their excellence in various aspects of education. It has also cultivated a variety of talents represented by famous ecologist Zheng Guangmei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and geographer Liu Xingtu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and physicist Sun Changpu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and optoelectronic functional materials scientist Liu Yichun, and writer Zhang Xiaotian. The 'four solid qualities'—firm beliefs, solid knowledge, down-to-earth personalities, and steadfast work ethics—of individuals from Northeast Normal University are widely acknowledged in society.
Continuing the tradition while forging ahead, the university is ready for a new era, new mission, and new journey. Northeast Normal University will always adhere to the party and the country's needs as the first choice for running the university, implement the philosophy of "respectful education, creative education," and carry out the fundamental task of cultivating morality and people. It will deepen the high-quality connotation development, strive to embody new responsibilities in the construction of a first-class university group and innovation-oriented national construction, achieve breakthroughs in exploring the construction of a high-quality teacher education system, and demonstrate new actions in training more outstanding teachers and future educators for the country. It will work hard to write a new chapter in the construction of a world-class normal university with Chinese characteristics.
For more information, please visit the Northeast Normal University homepage at www.nenu.edu.cn.
(Note: Updated on August 23, 2024)
