Southwest University

Southwest University (SWU)"西南大学" is a key comprehensive university, under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education of PR.China. It was newly established in July 2005 through the incorporation of former Southwest China Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University upon the approval of the Ministry of Education. SWU is situated nearby the beautiful Jialing River, and is located at the foot of Jinyun Mountain, a state level scenic spot, in Beibei District, Chongqing Municipality. The Southwest University is regarded as the top university in Normal studying, Agriculture research in Western China.Before the merge, the two universities are among the top comprehensive universities in Chongqing, China.

The former Southwest China Normal University was one of the key comprehensive universities under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. Originally it was named Southwest Teachers College and was established through the merging of the former National Women's Teachers College and the Sichuan Provincial Educational College in 1950. It was then renamed Southwest China Normal University in 1985.

The former Southwest Agricultural University was established in 1950, originally being named Southwest Agricultural College. This university was established through the merging of relevant sections and departments of the former Sichuan Provincial Educational College, the Western China University and Xianghui College. Approved by the State Council, it became one of the national key universities in 1979, and was then renamed Southwest Agricultural College followed by Southwest Agricultural University in 1985. In 2001, a new Southwest Agricultural University was established through combining with the former Sichuan Animal Husbandry and Veterinary College, the Citrus Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agriculture.

Before being united, Southwest China Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University were neighbors with only a wall separating the two institutions. Both universities had a long historic relationship, which could be traced back to their common origin, i.e. East Sichuan Teachers College in 1906.

Southwest China Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University have already cultivated a variety of graduates, more than 200,000 since their establishment. On the basis of long-term building and development, both universities formed their special characteristics in teachers' education and agricultural education respectively. The universities excel in a number of disciplines including pedagogy, psychology and agronomy. Among them, the silkworm genome research takes the lead in the world, and fundamental psychology and pedagogy have taken a national lead. Other great achievements include natural fallowing, silkworm gene bank, southwest ethnic education and psychology research, and human time cognition and so on. Hundreds of new technologies and achievements have brought with them outstanding social and economic benefits.

The following statistical data offer a profile of SWU: l Campus area of 9,000 Chinese mu (= 600 hectares), with the facilities area of almost 1,500,000 square meters; l A library with 3,800,000 volumes of book l 2 state level key disciplines l 9 first level disciplines and 66 specialties that can offer Ph.D. degrees l 9 post-doctoral research centers l 159 specialties that can offer Master's degrees and 5 professional Master's degrees l 36 provincial/ministry level key disciplines, 27 provincial/ministry level key laboratories l 5 key liberal arts research bases of Chongqing municipality l 97 Bachelor's degrees l In total, there are 11 disciplinary categories, covering 40 first level subjects.

SWU has a strong faculty team: l 2,650 full time teachers, and 300 professional researchers l 349 professors (research fellows), and 739 associate professors (associate research fellows) l 113 Ph.D. supervisors, and 513 Master's degree tutors l 1 top scientist of Chinese Academy of Science l 2 top scientists of Chinese Academy of Engineering l 75 state level and/or provincial/ministry level experts l 173 academic leading and/or nominated scholars l 15 outstanding state level experts l More than 40 professors being members of the State Council Academic Degree Committee and its Disciplinary Sub-committee, Sci-tech Committee of Ministry of Education, Assessment Committee of National Natural Science Foundation, Assessment Committee of National Philosophical Social Science Foundation, vice director, advisor and/or members of National Committee of Teaching Supervision l More than 70 professors acting as the positions of director, vice director, and/or executive director of the national above-second level societies l More than 20 professors are very influential in their respective academic fields l Over 1,400 projects/programs to be funded by "973 Project", "863 Project", National Natural Science Foundation, and National Social Science Foundation etc.

Southwest University has a variety of students numbering over 50,000. Its scale and levels are ranked ahead of other higher education institutions in the western China. Till now, Southwest University has had close communication and cooperation in research and academic studies with international universities and/or institutes from more than 30 countries and/or regions, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Russia and Canada etc., and enjoys long term partnership with over 20 of these universities.

site: [ http://www.swu.edu.cn]