Southwest University

Southwest University (SWU, simplified Chinese: 西南大学; traditional Chinese: 西南大學; pinyin: Xīnán Dàxué) is a comprehensive university in Chongqing, China. Southwest University (SWU) is a comprehensive and national key university sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China. SWU was founded in July 2005, by the merger of Southwest Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University. The history of both universities can be traced back to 100 years ago. It is one of the "211 Project" universities (top 100) which get preferential support for their development and construction from the Central Government of China. The total number of the students at SWU is more than 80,000, of which 50,000 are full-time students. There are many international students working for their bachelors, masters, doctors degrees and advanced studies in SWU every year.

SWU is located in Chongqing municipality, which is the central city in the Western China Development Project. The Three Gorges, Dazu Stones Carving and Hotpot Food are worldwide famous and unique. Southwest University began to enroll international students in the 1950s. It is also one of the universities designated by the Ministry of Education to enroll Chinese Government Scholarship students. Most of the international students in SWU are now majoring in Chinese language, Pedagogy, Psychology, Economics, Business in China, Chinese Minorities Studies, Life Sciences, Food Sciences, Agriculture, Fine Arts, and Chinese Martial Arts for example. The qualified International students in Southwest University have the privileges and chances to get Chonqing Mayor Scholarships and SWU Excellent Overseas Students Scholarship. In addition SWU is donating a share of Integrative Insurance for Medical Care and Accidents for every long term overseas student.

The university covers a broad range of academic disciplines including philosophy, economics, law, pedagogics, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture and management. It offers 40 national key disciplines, 66 doctoral programs, 9 postdoctoral programs, 159 master’s programs and 97 bachelor’s programs. SWU is known nationwide for its teaching methodological and agricultural studies. Studies in Pedagogics, psychology and agriculture have distinguished predominance in China; The Research of Silkworm genome is top in the world. A great deal of creative research works have been achieved in the fields like Zero Tillage Cultivation, Silkworm Genome, Studies on the Education and Psychological Behavior of Minorities in Southwestern China, and the Research on Human Time Cognition.

History:

Southwest University(Chinese: 西南大學） was originally established in 1906, during the Qing Dynasty. Much of its development occurred after the Republic of China was established. The modern university was established in July 2005, which absorbed the former Southwest China Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University, after the approval of the Chinese Ministry of Education. Southwest University is located near Jialing River, and is located at the foot of Jinyun Mountain, in Beibei District, Chongqing Municipality. The Southwest University is regarded as the top university and for agriculture research in Western China. Before the merger, the two universities were among the top comprehensive universities in Chongqing municipality.

Southwest China Normal University was one of the key comprehensive universities under the administration of the Chinese Ministry of Education. Originally it was created as the Southwest Teachers College. The college was the result of several mergers of the former National Women's Teachers College and the Sichuan Provincial Educational College in 1950. It was then established as Southwest China Normal University in 1985. Southwest Agricultural University was created in 1950, as the Southwest Agricultural College. The college was the end result of several institutions which were Sichuan Provincial Educational College, the Western China University and Xianghui College. In 1979, it was authorized by the State Council to be one of the national key universities. It was restructured as Southwest Agricultural College. In 1958, the college was upgraded as Southwest Agricultural University.

In 2001, Sichuan Animal Husbandry and Veterinary College and the Citrus Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agriculture were absorbed into Southwest Agricultural University. This marked the beginning of a new Southwest Agricultural University which specializes from teaching, pedagogy, psychology, agronomy and agriculture. Prior to the merger, Southwest China Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University were neighbors with only a wall separating the two universities. Both universities had a long historical relationship, which could be located back to their common origin, i.e. East Sichuan Teachers College in 1906. Southwest University employs 2,650 full-time teachers, and 300 professional researchers, 349 professors (research fellows), and 739 associate professors (associate research fellows, 113 PhD supervisors, and 513 Master's degree tutors. Southwest University over 50,000 students. Its scale and levels are ranked ahead of other higher education institutions in western China. The university library holds 3,800,000 volumes of items.