Southwest University is a comprehensive university sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China. It was founded in July 2005 with the merger of Southwest Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University, both of whose histories are over 100 years. It is one of the "211 Project" universities 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 also many international students working for their bachelor's, master's or doctor's degrees and other advanced studies in SWU every year. SWU is located in Chongqing municipality, which is the central city in the Western China Development Project. 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 etc. The qualified international students in Southwest University have the chance to get Chongqing 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 Silkwormgenome 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.
Colleges and departments
School of Marxism Studies
College of Political Science and Public Management
Southwest University was originally established in 1906, during the Qing Dynasty. Much of its development occurred after the Republic of China was established.
Formal establishment
The modern university was established in July 2005, incorporating the former Southwest China Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University, with the approval of the Chinese Ministry of Education.
Campus buildings
The following buildings are on the campus:
Art Gallery
Basketball Building
Soccer Court
The Eighth Teaching Building
The Thirty-third Teaching Building
Life Science Building
Southwest China Normal University
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
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.
Faculty and Student
Southwest University employs 2,650 full-time teachers, and 300 professional researchers, 349 professors, and 739 associate professors (associate research fellows, 113 PhD supervisors, and 513 Master's degree tutors. Southwest University has over 50,000 students.
Library
There are three libraries in school: the central library, the north section library and the south section library. The central library which was built on 2005 is the newest and largest one. The university library holds 3,800,000 volumes of items in total by January 2014.
