Jiangsu Normal University was initially built in 1952 as Wuxi Vocational School for Former Military Officers with Lieutenant General Liu Xiansheng as the first president. In 1956, it was tentatively renamed Jiangsu Training School for Middle-School Teachers, which was a regular higher education school with the approval from the State Council. It was renamed Jiangsu Normal School in 1957 and was moved north to Xuzhou in1958. After that, in 1959, it was merged with Xuzhou Vocational Normal School to form Xuzhou Normal College, the only undergraduate college in northern Jiangsu. In the early 1960s, higher education in China went through structural reform. Premier Zhou pointed out, “The vast land of Xuzhou should be home to universities.” Since then, it has been anchored in northern Jiangsu. In 1979, it began to recruit postgraduates; and in 1981 it became one of the first colleges conferring master’s degree in China. In 1996, with the approval from the former State Education Commission, it was renamed as Xuzhou Normal University. In November of 2011, the reply from Ministry of Education to Jiangsu Provincial Government approved that it can be renamed as Jiangsu Normal University.

Now Jiangsu Normal University is composed of four campuses: Quanshan, Yunlong, Kuiyuan, Jiawang. The land area occupation covers over 200 hectares; There are 812,000 square meters in the school’s buildings, including 112,300 square meters of laboratories. The university has the fixed assets totaling 1.13 billion yuan, including the teaching and laboratory equipment totaling 227 million yuan. There are nearly 2.50 million volumes in the library. The university has 3 trial academic divisions, 21 specialty schools, plus the Teachers’ Training School, Further Education School, International College and Kewen Institute. Currently, the university offers 80 undergraduate majors, 1 doctor’s program for national urgent needs; 26 master’s programs including Master’s of Education, Master’s of Physical Education, Master’s of International Chinese Teaching, Master’s of Fine Arts, and Master’s of Interpretation and Translation; The university has a current enrollment of 24,914 full-time undergraduate students (including 8,243 students in Kewen Institute) and 2,890 postgraduates, and 8,353 higher education training adults students.  The university was one of the first of 200 universities authorized to enroll international students in China. JSNU has established intercollegiate relationships with more than 20 universities and colleges in USA, UK, Japan, Korea, Australia, Russia, Belarus, and Uzbekistan. We have international students from 17 countries. Since the school was founded, it has graduated over 170,000 students, many who have played a leading a role in diverse fields including politics, economy, culture, technology and education.

Throughout the history of its development, JSNU has been home to many renowned scholars known both here and abroad including Professor Liao Xudong, an expert on Chinese linguistics; Professor Wu Benxing, the well-known poet and expert on Modern Chinese Literature; Professor Wang Jinshan, the dramatist and expert on Ancient Chinese Literary History; Professor Wu Ruyu, an expert on Ancient Chinese Literature; Professor Liu Baichuan, the educational theorist; Professor Zhang Huanting, a psychologist; Professor Zang Yunpu, a historian; Professor Luo Qixiang, geographer and many other distinguished experts and scholars. For over 50 years, all the faculty and staff have stuck to the school motto “To highlight morality and education” and have carried forward the sincere pioneering spirit, leading to a rapid development of JSNU.

The university has always striven to train talented young students to meet the demands of the society. To that end, we have constantly enhanced and improved the quality of our educational experience. In 2004, the Ministry of Education graded the university as excellent for undergraduate education. In 2006, the Ministry of Education graded our English major program as excellent. Currently, the university has four national-level professional building programs, two national-level elaborate courses, one national-level teaching faculty team, one special prize, seven first prize and 29 second prize for provincial-level teaching achievements, 20 provincial-level brand and characteristic majors, 47 provincial-level elaborate(excellent) courses, two provincial-level teaching faculty teams, ten provincial-level elaborate textbooks, one provincial-level experiment base for the talent training mode innovation, 15 laboratory projects under joint building by the central and local, and 12 provincial-level experimental teaching demonstration centers. In addition to the above, the university has also been determined as the college student cultural quality education base of Jiangsu Province, normal student quality education base, provincial-level training base for key teachers of primary and secondary schools, provincial training base for secondary vocational education teachers, provincial-level training base for teachers of the new curriculum of basic education by the provincial Department of Education, and one of the five regional college student mental health education and research centers in Jiangsu Province. 

The university has always focused on research across all the disciplines. Currently, the university has four phase-I projects for superiority subject of colleges and universities of Jiangsu Province, one key provincial-level discipline of first-class disciplines and four key provincial-level disciplines of first-class disciplines (training center). In addition, the university has three key laboratories for provincial-level colleges and universities, and two provincial-level philosophy and social science research centers, and three key research centers for the philosophy and social science of the provincial-level colleges and universities. In the last five years, the university has been awarded over 500 government-sponsored research projects, including 132 nationally fund projects. It has also won more than 60 scientific research awards above the ministerial-level and provincial-level, including the first, second and third prizes for the excellent achievement in the humanities and social science research at Chinese colleges and universities. Our faculty was also awarded the second prize for natural science, and the first prize for the progress in science and technology both issued by the Ministry of Education. Researchers at the university have also published 7,250 papers, and 1,775 of them have been indexed by SCI, EI, ISTP, and CSSCI. Furthermore, our faculty published 163 volumes and 83 textbooks, and received 46 patents. The Jiangsu Normal University Press’ The Journal of Liberal Arts and its journal Language Science have been selected into Guide to Chinese Core Journals. Language Science also has been selected as the source journal of CSSCI two years running. The Press’ science journal has been awarded as the core journal of Chinese science for three consecutive years and was honored as RCCSE Chinese core academic journal in 2009.

The university has also actively expanded new approaches to accelerate local economic and social development. In recent years, the university has successively established the teaching and scientific research associations with ten schools in northern Jiangsu to enhance the regional elementary education reform and economic and social development. We have established strategic corporate relationships with the local governments of Xuzhou, Yancheng, Lianyungang, Suqian, and Zhongwei of Ningxia, and set up technical cooperation with XCMG and other enterprises and institutions. The university set up five major R&D centers, which play an active role in the construction of the provincial-level University Science &Technology Park. As the only education center for government officials in Northern Jiangsu, our university makes its contribution to the in-depth cooperation between the university and the local government and between the university and other enterprises. This established an innovative strategy for university’s integrating into the local economy.

Recently, our students have won the second prize in the Challenge Cup, the national-level University extracurricular academic technology competition, first prize in the national-level University Art Festival, first prize in the national-level university mathematical modeling competition, special awards in the provincial-level humanities knowledge competition of colleges students in science and engineering majors. Students also have won championships in international and domestic sports events. The women’s football team has won multiple national championships. Some players have been selected for the national team for the Fifth Women World Cup and Beijing Olympic Games. Many of our players were on the Chinese College Women Football Team, when they won the second prize in the 23rd World University Games. The TV series Days without Rain, which was written, directed and acted by teachers and students of the university, won the dream Cup at the 5th national-level college TV competition. The university has been evaluated as the “Advanced Collectivity of College Students’ Mental Health Education in Jiangsu Province” and has been awarded as “National Advanced Unit for College Students’ Mental Health Education”. The university has been assessed as the “Advanced Employment Collectivity” by Jiangsu Province four times. The summer social practice program has been honored by The Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Education, the League Central Committee and National Association of Students for eleven consecutive years.