East China Normal University (ECNU) was founded in October
1951 in western
Shanghai, in place of
Great China University[?] (
Daxia University[?]) and
Guanghua University[?].
The University has 12 full-time schools, namely;
- Humanities
- Educational Science
- Preschool Education and Special Education
- Foreign Languages
- Business
- Law and Politics
- Physical Education and Health Care
- Science and Engineering
- Natural Resources and Environmental Science
- Life Science
- Information
- Vocational Techniques
These schools consist of 31 departments offering 44 undergraduate programs.
- 1951/1952: Founded on the basis of Daxia University[?] and Guanghua University[?]. Some disciplines of Fudan University, Tongji University[?], Hujiang University[?], East Asia Physical Education College[?], St. John University[?], Zhengdan University[?], Datong University[?] and Zhejiang University[?] were transferred to set-up East China Normal University.
- 1972: Renamed Shanghai Normal University, when Shanghai Teachers Institute[?], Shanghai Education Institute[?], Shanghai Physical Education Institute[?], and Shanghai in-Service Teachers Institute[?] were merged with it.
- 1978: The four institutes merged in 1972 begin to separate again and resume their original status.
- 1980 (July): The university returned to its original name of East China Normal University after the four institutes merged in 1972 re-seperate.
- 1993: School of Literature and Art founded.
- 1994 (April): School of Humanities first founded, comprising the History, Philosophy, Law and Politics and Social Sciences departments.
- 1997-1998: Shanghai Education Institute[?], Shanghai Second Education Institute[?] and Shanghai Preschool Education College[?] amalgamated into ECNU successively.
- 2001 (April): School of Humanities reconstructed. The Law and Politics and Social Science departments were separated, and the School of Literature and Art was merged. The new structure consists of six departments; the Chinese Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, International Chinese Studies and Art Education departments, in addition to the Institute of Ancient Chinese Book Studies. The school is affiliated with the following research institutes and centres; Institute of Literature, the Institute of Chinese Historiography, the Institute of Philosophy, the Information and Research Center of Literature, History and Philosophy, the Center for Chinese Studies Abroad, the Research Center for International Chinese Language and Culture, the Research Center of Religion and Culture, the Research Center of Hakkalogy, the Research Center of the History of China's Enterprises, and the Research Center of History Education.
Over fifty years of development has shaped ECNU into one of the key institutions of higher learning under the direct auspices of the Ministry of Education, influential both at home and abroad.