Founded in Shanghai in October 1951, East China Normal University (ECNU) is one of the most prestigious universities in China sponsored by the national top university construction programs “Project 211” and “Project 985”. In 2017, ECNU was chosen as one of the 36 Class A universities on the list of Double First Class University Plan released by the central government of China.
With two beautiful campuses located in Minhang and Putuo districts of Shanghai, and covering a total area of more than 207 hectares, ECNU has long been known as a Garden University.
Since China opened up to the outside world in 1978, ECNU has developed rapidly into a comprehensive research university. At present, the University has 4 faculties, 30 full-time schools, 4 colleges, 8 advanced research institutes, one college of further education, and one national training center for secondary principals. Its 58 departments offer a total of 84 undergraduate programs in humanities, education, science, engineering, economics, management, philosophy, psychology, law, history and art. In addition, the University also offers 30 doctoral programs, 35 master's programs, one professional doctoral program, 21 professional master's programs, and 26 post-doctoral mobile research stations.
As the first normal university established after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, ECNU has attached the utmost importance to teacher training. The Ministry of Education's Training Center for Secondary School Principals located at ECNU is a unique base for the training of secondary school principals on China’s Mainland and for advanced studies for secondary schools in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
ECNU boasts 2 State Key Labs, one National Engineering Research Center, one National Field Observation and Research Station, 7 Key Labs or Engineering Centers, 6 Key Research Bases for Humanities and Social Sciences, one Base for Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Education, and one International Cooperation Laboratory of the Ministry of Education. It also has 10 Key Labs or Engineering Centers, 16 Social Sciences Innovation Bases and Studios, and 4 university think-tanks for the Shanghai Municipality. The university sponsors or supervises the publication of nearly 30 academic journals and periodicals. Its library collection exceeds 4,800,000 volumes, and it also has 47 affiliated primary and secondary schools and kindergartens.
ECNU attaches great importance to internationalization. The university has established exchange and cooperative partnerships with more than 200 internationally renowned universities and academic institutions. As one of the first Chinese universities to carry out international Chinese education, it enjoys a leading position in this field.
Among its 4,000 strong faculty, 1,969 are professors and associate professors, including 18 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences or Chinese Academy of Engineering. Currently, the number of full-time undergraduate students is 15,454 and that of graduate students is 19,212. There are also about 5,000 international students studying at ECNU.
Adhering to the university motto of “Seek truth, foster originality, and live up to the name of a teacher”, ECNU has made great achievements in talent-training, scientific research, community service and international exchanges. It has contributed significantly to the development of Chinese basic education and teacher training, accelerated local, as well as national, economic development and promoted scientific and social growth. The development and transformation of the country and the city have offered huge opportunities to the university. ECNU is working steadily towards its goal of transforming itself into a world-class university, with a number of first-class disciplines and well-coordinated discipline development, while also leading the development of China's teacher education.
