Yunnan Normal University (; YNNU) is a provincial public normal university in Kunming, Yunnan, China. The university is co-sponsored by the Yunnan Province and the Ministry of Education.
History
Established in 1938 as the Normal College of the National Southwestern Associated University based on Beijing University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University, it was named 'National Kunming Normal College' in 1946 when the faculties returned to the north.
After the war broke out in 1937, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University moved to Kunming and merged into the National Southwest Associated University, which consisted of the Schools of Humanities, Science, Engineering, Business and Law, and the Teachers College. Following the end of the war, the three component universities moved back to their original sites in the north, but the Teachers College renamed National Kunming Teachers College, stayed behind to become an independent institution. In 1950, the word “National” was dropped from its name. A few decades later, in 1984, it acquired its present name, Yunnan Normal University.
Facilities
YNNU covers an area of 2,847 mu (about 469 acres). It consists of 26 schools and more than 40 research centers and institutes. It has over 30,000 full-time students pursuing degrees and more than 18,000 students of continuing education.
As the Provincial Center of the Data Resources of Chinese Higher Education, YNNU's library houses more than 3.2 million books with a new-generation digitized service system. The Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Social Science Edition), included in the highly selective CSSCI (Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index) list, ranks among the top 30 of its kind. The Natural Science Edition is a nationally acclaimed core journal, its impact factor ranking among the top 40 natural science journals in China. In addition, the Teaching and Research on Chinese as a Foreign Language Edition, the pioneer in this field, ranks among the top 30 journals of its kind in China in impact factor.
YNNU offers 10 disciplines: literature, history, philosophy, law, education, management, science, engineering, economics, and arts, which are well coordinated in their development. In a recent assessment conducted by the Ministry of Education, 20 of YNNU's sub-disciplines are ranked among the top 20 in the country while three of them are among the top 10. YNNU offers 86 bachelor's programs, one postdoctoral research program, one doctoral program in a first-class discipline, seven doctoral programs in second-class disciplines, 26 master's programs in first-class disciplines, 130 master's programs in second-class disciplines, and 10 professional master's programs, such as MBA and M.Ed. It is one of the first 24 universities in China that offer the Master's Program for Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages.
Research
The university has many research centers or institutes at the national, ministerial or provincial levels, including the National Solar-heater Quality Testing Center, the Sino-British Solar-energy Research and Development Center, the Sino-Laos Joint Lab for Recyclable Energy Resources, the Ministry of Education's Key Lab, Engineering Research Center, Innovative Team, Technological Application and Innovation Demonstration Base, State-level Professional Talent Continuing Education Base, Research Center of Sports Culture Sponsored by the General Administration of Sport of China, Yunnan Province's Academician Work Center—Academician Gehan Amaratunga's Work Center, Research Center for the Opening of Southwest China and Frontier Security, Research Institute of Sino-Tibetan Languages, Institute of Studies of Yunnan, Yunnan College of Chinese Language and Culture, Platt American Studies Center, Ronning Canadian Studies Center, Kunming Strategy Research Institute for Pan-Asian Talent Training and Development, and so on.
In the past five years, YNNU has taken on over 100 prestigious key research projects like the National Social Science Foundation Major Project, the National Natural Science Foundation Major Project, “973” Project, “863” Project, and research projects funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology. YNNU's research funds total over 520 million yuan (RMB).