Founded in 1954 in the center of metropolitan Shanghai – the biggest city of China,

Shanghai Normal University (SHNU) holds a longstanding commitment to excellence in teaching, learning and research. SHNU is enlisted as one of the key universities of “MOE-Municipality Co-construction” and the “Prestigious Universities Construction Plan” in Shanghai.

During the 60 years of development, SHNU has become a key comprehensive university in Shanghai. As a traditionally-strong teacher education university, we are proud that now 70% of Shanghai school teachers and 50% of Shanghai school principals are SHNU alumni, in spite of the fact that humanities, science, engineering, arts, tourism, environment etc. disciplines are also our disciplinary strengths. Our mission includes “to cater for the needs of Shanghai in its building of 5 centres; to forge a first-class academic and research staff; to cultivate talents of morality, eruditeness, truth-seeking and diligence; to further strengthen our role of delivering first-class teacher education programs; to optimize our research-informed and industry-linked academic structure; to enhance students’ and staff’s multi-cultural academic experience for quality services to the community”.

SHNU has two campuses with a land area of 381 acres, and the student population is 30,000, studying with 46 doctoral, 161 master’s and 80 bachelor’s degree programmes. We have 17 colleges including humanities, education, philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, science, management, agriculture, fine arts, tourism, geography, music, environment colleges, etc. with a staff of 2,925. SHNU now has 10 joint undergraduate degree programmes in collaboration with 7 universities in the US, UK, Germany, the Netherland, Russia and France.

Among the 50 major research institutes and centres are the state-level Comparative and World Literature Research Centre, a MOE-level Metropolitan Culture Research Institute, International & Comparative Education Research Centre, African Studies Centre, NUS-Princeton-SHNU Joint Resources Chemistry Lab, Guangqi International Scholars Research Centre, etc. In recent years, many international joint research publications appear in international journals including Science and Nature.

In the past 10 years, SHNU has relentlessly pursued its “Going International Initiative”, employing Internationalization as its key driver for development, providing our students, professors and researchers with ample opportunities and platforms for international collaboration. Annually, more than 2,000 students and 800 academic staff go overseas for studies and research projects. Over 2,000 international students are studying on campus.

Government consultative services in education and city planning, OECD PISA and TALIS research publications, England-Shanghai Mathematics Teacher Exchange, US-China educational superintendents dialogue, hosting the UNESCO C-II Teacher Training Centre, projects with the World Bank, World Tourism Organization, World Health Organization, etc. are typical of our internationalization efforts. SHNU is also a key member of the “Better Futures” International Universities Network, of Shanghai-Hong Kong Universities Alliance, through which lots of student exchange, staff shadowing and international research are taking place.

Based in the vibrant, rapidly growing Metropolitan Shanghai, Shanghai Normal University has been fully embracing China’s and Shanghai’s development opportunities, and aims itself at nurturing first-class educational talents and industrial specialists to serve the needs of the community and national development.