Located in Wuhan, Central China Normal University (CCNU) is a key comprehensive normal university directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China. It is also one of the universities on the list of the “211 National Education Priority Project” and “Double First-Class” Initiative.
The origin of CCNU can be traced back to Boone College (Wenhua Shuyuan), which was established in 1903 and later renamed Huachung University. In the following years, it merged with Zhonghua University and the School of Education of Zhongyuan University. In 1985, its name was officially changed to Central China Normal University, which was handwritten by Deng Xiaoping, one of the founders of Zhongyuan University.
Since its founding, CCNU has been recognized as an important base for cultivating brilliant talents for the country as well as a top-quality training center for excellent teachers in higher education. Embracing the essence of traditional culture, CCNU absorbs the sustenance of foreign cultures and promotes the tradition of progressive culture. It is dedicated to seeking truth, innovation, building morality and cultivating creativity within its students. Driven by the spirit of loyalty, erudition & virtue, honesty and resolution, CCNU has educated over 600,000 outstanding talents in the past years.
As one of the first institutions to offer postgraduate degree programmes in China, CCNU boasts a strong team of over 3,600 faculty and staff members who devote themselves to making a difference through learning, problem solving, innovation and community building. Its established advanced educational system ranges from undergraduate to postgraduate programmes, doctoral to postdoctoral programmes and from full-time to part-time programmes. Currently, it accommodates over 18,700 undergraduate students, and 12,900 postgraduate students, among whom around 1000 are from overseas.
CCNU provides comprehensive, state-of-the-art research facilities for 28 faculty and schools as well as 19 postdoctoral research stations. With its strength in research, such disciplines as Politics, Chinese Language and Culture and Pedagogy have been incorporated into the National Construction Plan of the First-Class Discipline Initiative. In possession of 67 scientific research institutions and laboratories, CCNU has a number of research units for humanities and social sciences in addition to a National Engineering Laboratory and Research Unit for international cooperation.
CCNU has established close ties with an array of leading universities and research institutions both at home and abroad. It is actively engaged in exchange programmes and extensive academic cooperation with more than 200 institutions and foreign experts and teachers are regularly invited to teach at the university. The cooperation has been conducive to the advancement of science and technology, culture and education exchanges between China and other nations.
Adhering to the motto of “seeking truth and innovation, establishing morality and cultivating talents”, CCNU upholds the tradition of "erudition, learned and universal love". Focusing on the pursuit of education and research at the highest level of excellence, the University is striving to become a world-class university with the focus on teacher education.