Located in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning Normal University (NNNU) is a provincial normal university under the supervision of the Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Located in the subtropics to the south of the tropic of cancer, Nanning is taken as “The Green City in China” with its evergreen trees and flowers in the whole city. Nanning is the core city of Beibuwan gulf city clusters, the central city of the Beibuwan gulf economic zone, the comprehensive maritime transportation junction in Southwest China, the permanent host of the China-ASEAN Expo, and the important gateway city of the Belt and Road Initiative of the Maritime Silk Road.

Nanning Normal University, with its four campuses of Wuhe, Wuming, Mingxiu and Changgang all located in the pleasantly green areas of Nanning city, covers a total area of 3383.1 mu, which is about 225.54 acres. The university library has a collection of 2,244,300 volumes and 2,830,800 electronic books.

Nanning Normal University has a great deal of academic reputation. It is a member university of the National Central and Western Universities Basic Capacity Construction Project (Phase II), one of the second batch of National Demonstration Universities for Deepening Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Reform, a pilot school of the “Hundred-University Project” held by the Ministry of Education for the development of Chinese big data, one of the outstanding schools in their undergraduate programs evaluated by the the Ministry of Education, an assignee of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of CAS(Chinese Academy of Sciences) and the Third Party Evaluation Group on the Effectiveness of Targeted Poverty Alleviation, one of the Guangxi universities of the first batch of undergraduate enrollment, one of the Guangxi universities developed for conferring doctor degrees, one of the Guangxi universities developed for first class disciplines, and a model for law-based governance of the university in Guangxi Autonomous Region in 2019.

In addition, Nanning Normal University has also won some political honors. It is the Advanced Unit for National Unity and Progress, Model School for National Language Standardization, National Advanced Unit for Sports and Health, National Advanced Unit for Sports Work, National Outstanding University for Students’ Military Training, National Advanced University for Arts Education, National Model Base for Voluntary Aid for the Disabled, and National Advanced Unit for Trade Union Work.

History of NNNU

The history of NNNU can be traced back to 1953 with the establishment of Guangxi Secondary School for Teachers’ Training. It evolved into Guangxi College for Teachers’ Training (1953), Nanning Teachers College (1960), Guangxi Educational College (1966), Guangxi Teachers’ University (1985), and Nanning Normal University (2019). During the process of NNNU’s development, two other schools were integrated with, Guangxi College for Nationalities in 1960 and Nanning Teachers’ College for Nationalities in 2002.

NNNU began to establish undergraduate programs in 1978 and graduate programs in 1998.

On the basis of its Mingxiu and Changgang campuses, it had the campus of Wuhe in 2015 and the campus of Wuming in 2019. Up to September of 2021, the number of its students in school has reached 25675, with undergraduates 22204, graduates 2954, junior college students 230 and pre-college students 287. With its  motto of “Morality-and-Ability Necessity, Knowing-and-Doing Integrity,” NNNU has trained more than 130,000 professionals for basic education and other trades in social development. 

Disciplines, Programs and Institutes

NNNU has 10 disciplines, including Philosophy, Economics, Law, Education, Literature, History, Science, Engineering, Management and Arts. It offers 70 undergraduate programs, 17 graduate programs, 1 second-level discipline graduate program not in the list of first-level disciplines. Altogether, 13 of its disciplines have the right to offer master degrees.

It has the following research institutes: 2 academician workstations of applied mathematics and surveying and mapping geography, 3 key laboratories supervised by the Autonomous Region, 4 key laboratories of Guangxi universities, 1 base for research in humanities and social sciences among Guangxi universities, and 5 research bases and centers at the provincial or ministerial level.

It possesses the following bases and centers for various kinds of education: National Research Center for College Counselor Development supervised by the Ministry of Education, Research Center for Training Professionals of Political and Ideological Work, National Base for Promotion of Chinese Language and Characters, National Training Base for the Innovation of the Vocational Teachers, Provincial Research Center for China-ASEAN Vocational Education Research, Research Center for Guangxi Vocational Education, Research Center for the Exchange of Humanities between Guangxi and Taiwan, Guangxi Model Base for Teachers’ Education, Guangxi Key Research Base for Educational Studies, Guangxi Model Base for College Students’ Entrepreneurship and Guangxi Research Institute for Undergraduates Education. 

It owns a lot of key research centers and bases supervised by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party Committee of Guangxi Autonomous Region for intangible cultural heritage, science innovation and cooperation between university and businesses, and inter-provincial communications in teachers’ education and entrepreneurship development. NNNU belongs to one of the first batch of universities for developing their distinguishing features. Its Marxist College is the key Marxist institute in Guangxi.

It has the following training bases: Training Base concerning with the “National Compulsory Education Project in Poor Areas”, Guangxi Base for Training the Masters of Primary and Secondary Schools, Guangxi Base for Kindergarten Teachers, Guangxi Base for Teaching Reform in Primary and Middle Schools, Guangxi Base for the Training of “Online Teaching and Offline Tutoring” Model, Guangxi Provincial Base for the Professional Extended Education, Guangxi Training Base for the Leaders Assisting the Poor to Start Businesses, Guangxi Provincial Base for Training Professional Farmers and Guangxi Training Base for Agricultural Managers.

Finally, it has some bases and centers for university students’ teaching practice: 1 National off Campus Base for Undergraduates’ Teaching Practice, 28 Provincial Bases for Graduates Joint Training, 5 Provincial Centers for Teaching Demos, 6 Provincial Centers for Teaching Virtual Simulation and 34 Provincial Bases for Teaching Practice.

Teaching Staff

With the strategy of “School Promotion by Talents ,” NNNU has a new system of employing and fostering talents. Up to now, it has more than 1200 full-time teachers, more than 1000 of whom have master or PhD degrees, more than 600 of which are in senior professional or technical positions, 44 of which are doctoral supervisors, 499 of whom are master supervisors. In NNNU, there are 14 researches or teaching teams undertaking national or provincial projects, and 104 of its faculty have won national or provincial honors for their talented work. In September 2017, Wu Peiheng, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was appointed as the honorary president of NNNU by the government of Guangxi Autonomous Region. In addition, NNNU has academic communication with others by inviting well-known experts and scholars at home or abroad to take office or give lectures. In recent five years, it has employed 47 visiting professors, 1 of whom is an academician.

Excellent Teaching Achievements.

With its specialty of teacher training, NNNU has achieved a great success in this field. From the perspective of discipline construction, it has 4 disciplines as the candidates for featured discipline project organized by the Ministry of Education, 1 pilot unit for undergraduate major reform supervised by the Ministry of Education, 9 national first-class undergraduate program construction sites set by the Ministry of Education, 11 national first-class/excellent courses, 89 provincial first-class/excellent courses. And it has 3 Exemplary Modern Industrial Schools. And three of its master thesis were awarded as the National Outstanding Master's Degree Thesis. Because of these achievements, 1 unit was honored as national advanced collective, 1 student honored as “the Year Man of 200-top-university-students in China”, 1 teacher as the winner of the National “May First” Labour Medal.

From the perspective of the results achieved by the students, NNNU has a total number of 7605 honors for various academic competitions. Among the 7605 honors, 473 awards are from national academic competitions, including the first prize for the National Teaching Skills Competition by normal university students, the first prize for the National Mathematical Modelling Competition by university students, the first prize for National Electronic Design by university students, the first prize for the National Advertisement Art Competition by university students, the first prize for the National Competition of Reciting, Writing and Speaking Chinese Classics by university students and the championship of the selection contest in Guangxi area for “Internet Plus” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and so on. 

From the point of view of the ratio of the students prize winning, NNNU is also excellent. For example, in the competition of the fifth National Normal University Students Teaching Skills, all the 3 NNNU students who participated in the competition won the first prize, the ratio of winning the first prize being the first among the participating universities in the whole country. For another example, from the first to the 11th National Normal University Students Teaching Skills Competitions, NNNU has won 316 honers, the total number of which and the number of first prize of which are the first among Guangxi universities.

 Finally, NNNU is proud of its employment rate. Since 2004, the rates of graduate employment have always kept steadily high. For 17 consecutive years, it has won the honor of “Advanced Unit in Guangxi Universities for Graduates Employment” or the honor of “Outstanding Unit in Guangxi Universities for Graduates Employment”. Its alumni have made great progress in various fields. Some of them have been national or provincial model teachers, excellent teachers or special-class teachers. Wei Yongli, the woman athlete with the nickname of “Flying Women in Asia” and Xin Yiwu, a famous woman novelist of the post 80s, are also alumni of NNNU.

Academic Research

In the past five years, NNNU has won 5 national awards, including 1 first prize and 1 third prize for scientific research of the institutions of higher learning established by the Ministry of Education (in arts and humanities); 69 provincial and ministerial awards, including 4 first prizes and 14 second prizes for excellent results in social science in Guangxi, 3 Bronze Drum Awards for Literary and Artistic Creation in Guangxi, 8 second prizes for Science and Technology in Guangxi. The Journal of Nanning Normal University (philosophy and social science edition) was awarded as “Excellent Journal of the National Colleges and Universities” by the Association of the National College and University Journals in 2009, and as the “key journal by Research Center for China Science Evaluation (RCCSE)” (A) in 2020. Since 2016, 60 papers of NNNU have been reprinted by China Social Science Digest, China University Academic Abstracts and China Social Excellence.

Academic Cooperation

Adhering to the opening policy on running its education, NNNU has cooperation with over 70 colleges and universities in more than 20 countries and regions in the world. It cooperates with Cardiff Metropolitan University of UK in the undergraduate program of Tourism Management, with Jinan International University of Taiwan in the undergraduate program of Electronic Information Engineering.

In cooperation with the colleges and universities in Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan, NNNU has the Center for Thai Language and Culture, Center for the Studies of Overseas Chinese Literature in Malaysia, Center for Preschool Education Development in Guangxi and Taiwan, Center for the Studies of Music with the Minority Instruments in Guangxi and Taiwan, Center for Guangxi and Taiwan Social Work Practice Exchange, and Center for Korean Culture.

NNNU actively develops its international education. It is the certified university by China Education Association for International Exchange to enroll international students. The international students who attend NNNU have the eligibility to apply for “Chinese Government Scholarship”, “Chinese Government Silk-Road Scholarship”, “Guangxi-ASEAN Scholarship”. It has an educational center for learning Chinese. The enrollment of international students is increasing year by year. NNNU is also a certified university to accept students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It cooperates with the universities of Hong Kong and Macao in hosting a conference for “The Exchange of University Staff and Students between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macao”.

Finally, NNNU has cooperation with others by hosting conferences. It hosted “3rd International Conference on Human Brain Development” in 2017, “International Workshop on Monitoring the Ecosystem by Remote Sensing on the Background of Global Change” in 2019, “Conference on the Exchange and Influence of the ASEAN Civilizations” in 2019, “2020 China-ASEAN” Vocational Education Development Forum” in 2020 and “3rd International Conference on Language Teaching and Research” in 2020.

Students’ Social Work Practice and Cultural Activities

NNNU is a pilot university appointed by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League for the innovation of the University Communist Youth League work. It has won the following reputations: the National Advanced Unit for College and University Students Social Work Practice in Summer Vocation (twelve times), the National “Excellent Project” for College Students as Volunteers to Serve West China, Outstanding Achievement Award conferred by the Ministry of Education for the Construction of Campus Culture, National Award for Students Exhibition and Performance of Their Artistic Life, National Advance Unit for Youth League Volunteer Service for anti-COVID 19, Advanced Organization for Volunteer Service in the Activity of Learning-from-Lei-Feng in the Autonomous Region, and the National Honor for the Competition of Cultural Works of Commission against Corruption, and so on. The website of Hong-Sui-He (red river), NNNU’s website for political and ideological education, was honored twice as one of the top-100 websites in China. Among its 56 student organizations, 5 are the Best University Students Organization in the Autonomous Region. In 2019, the degree of vitality of its teaching activities through the website of Yi Ban ranked fourth in China and the first in the Autonomous Region. In 2020, NNNU’s workstation for Yi Ban website won the honor of the best National Website Workstation.

Development Goals

Taking Xi Jinping’s thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era as the guiding principle, fostering students’ character and civic virtue as its basic tasks, improving the quality of personal training as its core work, building “first-class university and first-class disciplines” as its development goal, and taking connotative development as its path, NNNU tries its best to make itself a unique and advanced normal university in Guangxi by establishing a modern university system, building a highly qualified teaching staff, establishing a highly qualified system of professional training, improving its ability to serve the development of the economy and the society, improving its international communication and cooperation, establishing its new cultural image and constructing a highly effective system of service guarantee.