About-Office for International Cooperation and Exchanges (Office for Hong kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs)

Chongqing Normal University (CNU) is located in Chongqing, China. As the only municipality in central-west China, Chongqing is an exemplary mega city of China, a strategic pivot for Western China Development in the new era, a comprehensive hub for inland opening-up as well as a key transportation mecca, economic center, and modern manufacturing base in the region.

Though founded in 1954, CNU can trace its roots back to the State-Run East Sichuan Normal School established in 1906. CNU has developed a distinctive "2-3-3" school-running pattern. The “2” refers to the coordinated development of the "two growth engines”-teacher education and non-teacher education. The first “3” refers to the paralleled development of the “three key areas”-basic education, vocational education and international Chinese language education. The second “3” refers to the integrated development of the "three emerging fields"- New Liberal Arts, New Engineering disciplines and New Agricultural Sciences. CNU’s total student enrollment has reached 34,000.

CNU boasts of an excellent faculty and a sophisticated discipline system. It has a faculty and staff of nearly 2,200 including 900 holders of senior professional titles, 1,000 supervisors for doctoral and master’s students and 17 national-level experts like academicians of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences. CNU has opened 12 discipline categories (Philosophy, Law, Economics, Education, Literature, Science, Interdisciplinary Studies, etc.), 48 doctoral/master's programs, 75 undergraduate majors, 6 advantageous discipline clusters such as mathematics & Information science and teacher education, and 4 leading "AI +" discipline clusters around Chongqing. Moreover, 4 disciplines have ranked among the top 1% according to ESI.

Remarkable achievements have been made in scientific research. Over the past decade, CNU has obtained approval of over 470 national-level research projects including 21 major or key projects; published over 3,900 high-quality science papers among which 70 are ESI Hot/Highly Cited Papers; published over 270 acclaimed academic monographs; established 61 research platforms at or above the provincial/ministerial level like one of the first batch of National Applied Mathematics Centers and 28 research teams at or above the provincial level; won 59 national awards such as the Second Prize of China Natural Science Award and 329 provincial/ministerial awards; lead the way for the rest of the world in research findings like ultrafast blue laser. In the last five years, our students have earned over 1,200 national and international prizes in major competitions of various kinds.

Unique advantages and features have been built into the discipline of education. CNU has one of the first batch of National Training Base for Teacher Innovation Teams approved by the Ministry of Education, China’s first provincial-level University Key Laboratory for Psychological Diagnosis & Educational Technology of Children with Special Education Needs (SEN), China’s first university-established Experimental School for Children with SEN. Over 90% of the key teachers and principals of Chongqing’s elite high schools have studied and received training at CNU. Additionally, 50% of the city's key teachers in special education, 60% of the key teachers of primary schools and 90% of the kindergarten principals are CNU graduates. CNU has appointed Prof. Hopcroft of Cornell University (Turing Award Laureate, Foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academician of U.S. National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Arts and Sciences) as the Honorary Dean of Institute for Digitalized Teacher Education (IDTE) which is dedicated to cultivating exceptional innovative talents. Under the guidance of Academician Chen Lin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other leading experts, CNU has been working hard to advance cross-disciplinary research on cognitive neuroscience and rehabilitation for children with SEN, as well the transformation of SEN children rehabilitation from “empiricism” to “science-based”.

The opening-up and internationalization of education has entered a new phase. CNU has established friendly and cooperative relations with educational institutions in more than 30 countries and regions around the world. We are blessed with national bases such as " National Chinese Language Education Base ”, "National Vocational Education Teacher Training Base of the Ministry of Education”, “National Teacher Training Base for International Chinese Language Education (Chongqing)” and “China International Cultural Exchange Base for Overseas Chinese”. CNU also serves as the Sino-German (Chongqing) Vocational Education Cooperation Demonstration Base and Chongqing’s Featured University for International People-to-People Exchanges. We have set up 5 Confucius Institutes and 1 Chinese Language Teachers College in five continents, built 3 Centers for Country and Regional Studies, and co-founded the Sino-Foreign Cooperative Educational Institution named Chongqing Tchaikovsky Conservatory in partnership with Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory to foster world--leading artistic talents.

CNU enjoys a strong momentum of growth. President Xi Jinping and other Party and state leaders have inspected CNU and guided our reform and development. In the next five years, CNU will strive to build itself into a renowned normal university in western China, a leading university in high-level international cooperation, a pioneer in all-round and in-depth reform, a pilot for digital and intelligent teacher education, and a window for serving local development. We aim at making CNU a first-class comprehensive normal university in China with distinctive characteristics in teacher education and great international influence by 2035.