Northeast Normal University

Northeast Normal University is among the Chinese universities selected to be part of the country's 211 project, a government initiative dedicated to raising the research standards of China’s best institutions.

The university was the first to be founded by the Communist Party in Northeast China. Originally called Northeast University, it was renamed soon after opening to reflect its specialism in teaching the country’s educators.

The university’s key disciplines are Principles of Education, History of the World, Cell Biology, Ecology, and Political Education. However, it offers a much broader programme of almost 60 undergraduate degrees, 140 master’s and 70 doctoral degrees. The institution is organised into 19 schools.

Northeast Normal University is the site of China’s National Engineering Laboratory of Drug Genes and Proteins, while the university’s art, media and biology schools are designated as National Experimental Teaching Demonstrating Centres.

Scientific research across all fields is seen as the backbone of the university, which invested almost 500 million Yuan into 2,400 different projects between 2006 and 2010.

Northeast Normal University is based in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province in China’s northeast. It has been given the nickname “forest city” for the 39 per cent of its land which is given over to parks, forests and fields. Korea lies to the south of the region, and the area has a rich mixture of Chinese and Korean culture, with plenty of fusion food. The region is known for its local breweries and its beer flows cheaply, costing as little as £0.10 a bottle.