Founded in 1944, Directly administered by the Ministry of Education of China, Shaanxi Normal University, a key university under the construction plan of China’s national “211 Project" and a university under China’s Innovation Platform Construction Plan of the“985” Superior Discipline of Teacher Education, is a major base for training teachers and administrators of higher learning institutes and secondary schools as well as other high-level professionals in China, and is known as the “Cradle of Teachers” in Northwest China. Presently, it has a postgraduate school , 21 schools and departments, 65 undergraduate majors, 196 master’s degree majors, 112 doctoral majors and 18 post-doctoral mobile research stations. The university has competitive advantages in areas of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, Chinese Language and Literature, History and Cultural Studies, Education, Psychology and Biology. The university has over 1740 full-time teachers, of whom more than 90% are doctor or mater degree holders, including more than 1000 professors and associate professors. There are more than 70000 students of different types enrolled in the university, of which more than 33200 are full-time students. There are nearly 1000 international students at the university. The university’s two campuses, the Chang’an and Yanta campus, occupy an area of about 2700 mu （approx. 180 hectares）. During its more than 70-year history in education, the University, while rooted in China’s West, has embraced the whole country, developed a school spirit of “Morality, Learning, Aspiration and Action” and has become an influential top-tier comprehensive teachers training university, for the future, it strives to achieve the goal of building itself to be a major comprehensive research university distinguished by its teacher education.
With more than 40 years history of receiving international students, the International School of Chinese Studies is an important component in the university’s international exchange and cooperation. It now has more than 30 full-time teachers and over 100 part-time teachers to meet the need of more than 1,000 long-term and short-term international students in both degree and non-degree programs, as well as about 300 Chinese students majoring in “Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages” at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels.
The School has three Departments, one Institution and one Center, namely the Department for International Students, the Department of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, the Department of Sinology, the International Institution of Chinese Studies and the Training Center for Overseas Chinese Teachers. It, admitting both Chinese and foreign students for degree and non-degree education, has a full range of programs for educating different students, from language students to undergraduate, masters and doctoral students.
The Degree Programs include all majors of the university, which are open for application by international students. The Department of Sinology under the International School of Chinese Studies provides customized degree program to international students. The period of study is 4 years for undergraduate students, 3 years for master’s and doctoral candidates, which can be extended in special conditions.
The Non-degree Programs fall into three categories: 1. Chinese Language Program This 18-week long-term program admits students in spring and autumn. Short-term programs ranging from one week to three months are started any time in a year when there are more than 10 applicants who are at the same level. 2. Chinese Language and Culture Training Program This program is open to overseas Chinese language teachers for 3-4 weeks training in Chinese language and culture as well as pedagogic skills. and 3. Summer (Winter) Camp The 3-4 weeks camp is mainly designed for the overseas Chinese youth.
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