Guangxi Normal University (, abbreviated GXNU) is a provincial research university located in Guilin, Guangxi, China with historical strengths in teacher education, basic arts and sciences, and international exchange programs. Established in 1932 as one of the earliest normal schools (teacher training institutions) in China, GXNU has evolved into a comprehensive university granting undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees across 21 colleges and departments with 75 undergraduate majors.
The GXNU chemistry department is ranked in the Global Top 1% according to the Thomson Reuters 2017 InCites Essential Science Indicators (ESI), based on citation frequency of published research papers.
History
Establishment and merging into Guangxi University
Guangxi Normal University was established in 1932 as Guangxi Provincial Teacher's College, the first normal school in the Guangxi region and one of the first teacher training institutions in the country. Its first president was notable educator Yang Dongyu (). The original campus was located in the Yanshan District of Guilin, where the modern university now maintains a branch campus.
Almost immediately from its establishment, the fledgling institution became the center of a power struggle between the provincial Guangxi government and the Nationalist Ministry of Education, resulting in a long period of evolution, absorption into other institutions, renaming, and re-establishment. In 1936, the provincial government ordered the school to merge into National Guangxi University (now known as Guangxi University, the flagship public university of Guanxi province). The school became the National Guangxi University College of Liberal Arts, which focused on the humanities and no longer functioned solely as a normal school.
Relocation and evolution into an independent institution
In 1941, a greater demand for schoolteachers in Guangxi caused the college to be separated from Guangxi University and reconstituted as the independent Guangxi Teacher's College. The school was renamed the Guangxi Guilin Teacher's College in 1942, and then National Guilin Teacher's College in 1943. In February 1946, the school moved to the city of Nanning and became the National Nanning Teacher's College.
In February 1950, the school moved back to Guilin and merged with National Guangxi University for the second time. This time, the school became the National Guangxi University Teacher's College, also known as the College of Culture and Education, retaining its function as a normal school.
In 1953, the People's Republic of China began a nationwide reorganization of higher education institutions. In July 1953, the Ministry of Education ordered the re-establishment of the normal school as an independent institution to be known as Guangxi Teacher's College. To support the creation of the new school, Guangxi University transferred 53 professors in its departments of Chinese, foreign languages, history, mathematics, physics, and chemistry, as well as 256 faculty members of the College of Culture and Education (many of them faculty of the original Guangxi Provincial Teacher's College), to the Guangxi Teacher's College.
Once again independent, the school was granted the historic Jingjiang Princes' Palace in Guilin, Guangxi as its new Wangcheng Campus.
Until 1978, it was the only institution of higher education in Guangxi authorized to grant a Bachelor's degree in teacher education. In 1981, the Guangxi Teacher's College received authorization to grant master's degrees.
On May 29, 1983, the institution incorporated as the Guangxi Normal University. It granted its first doctoral degrees in 2006.
Academics and research
As of 2018, the university had 26,831 undergraduate students, 6,386 graduate students, and 171 PhD candidates, including over 1,600 international students across all degree programs. Additionally, 16,000 correspondence, online, and visiting students are enrolled in GXNU programs.
Guangxi Normal University runs massive online open courses through various colleges and departments, including a MOOC focused on the life and works of Tang Dynasty poets from the historical Guangxi region.
List of GXNU colleges and departments
Guangxi Normal University has 22 academic disciplines recognized as Guangxi Key Disciplines, indicating a high quality program compared to programs at other universities in Guangxi. The university hosts 11 Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centers.