Quanzhou Normal University is located in Quanzhou, one of the central cities in Fujian Province. As one of the first batch of national historical and cultural cities, Quanzhou is also known as the East Asian Cultural City and the starting point of the ancient Maritime Silk Road. Its GDP ranks first in Fujian Province for 20 consecutive years. Approved by the Ministry of Education in 2000, QNU became the first newly-established local university in Fujian Province,merged by Quanzhou Teachers School founded in 1923, Nan’an Teachers School in 1939, Quanzhou Education College in 1951 and Quanzhou Teachers’ College in 1958.

President Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of CPC Central Committee paid visits to the university on 18th, October, 1999 and 20th, April, 2001,when he was governor of Fujian province, giving instructions The direction for the future development of QNU is to become a multi-disciplinary university. The magnificent goal is undoubtedly what we expect to see. This is also in line with the structural adjustment of higher education in Fujian.

 Up till now, the nearly-century-old QNU has been offering higher education for over 60 years. Adhering to the motto of Accumulating Knowledge and Consummating Personality, generations of QNU people keep striving to improve its educational level and strength. In 2004 and 2016, it passed the first and second round of undergraduate teaching evaluation by the Ministry of Education. In 2011, it was approved as the pilot unit for master degree education. In 2013, it was approved as one of the first batch of 2011 collaborative innovation centers and the innovation base of postgraduate education in Fujian. Since 2017 it has been ranking as Double-Top  University , authorized as an Exemplary Application-oriented University in Fujian, , Master Degree-awarding Cultivation Institution, the national Innovative Entrepreneurial Training Plan University. It’s also the Graduate Student Education Innovation Base and the first batch of 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center in Fujian ，pilot university of comprehensive reform of Three Aspects of Education. QNU has won a number of high-level honorary titles such as exemplary university with national defense education characteristic, provincial May 1 labor award, harmonious and peaceful campus, and won provincial civilized campus titles for seven consecutive years. Since its establishment, it has cultivated more than 200,000 outstanding talents for the society, making huge contributions to the economy, social progress and educational development of Fujian and the country.

 QNU has three campuses, Donghai Campus, Shishan Campus and Jiangnan Campus,covering an area of nearly 300 acres in total. At present, it consists of 17 colleges, 58 full-time undergraduate majors. There are about 18,000 full-time undergraduates and postgraduates. QNU owns more than 1,400 faculties and staffs, among whom over 1,100 are professional teachers. In QNU there are 3 national-level outstanding talents, 4 experts with the special allowance of the State Council, 2 members of the Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, 2 provincial university's Science and Technology Innovation Team, 5 provincial teaching teams of undergraduate education, and more than 100 provincial-level specialists titled Minjiang scholar, candidate of provincial Millions of Talent Projects , leading talent in Fujian colleges, candidate of specially-sponsored Fujian Double -Hundred Talent Project.

Remain true to the original aspiration of educating, QNU insists on the teaching-centered position. In recent years, QNU has won 1 second prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award, 5 grand prizes, 7 first prizes and 14 second prizes of provincial teaching achievements, 1 first prize of the National Young Teachers' Teaching Competition in Colleges and Universities.

Various national and provincial programs have been granted to power the university with extensive resources which include a national reform program of “Excellent Teacher” training and cultivating, a national program of “Major and Curriculum Reform” granted by the Ministry of Education, 2 national characteristic majors, 1 first-class major of national level, 1 national pilot program of comprehensive reform in majors, 1 national experimental zone for innovation of talent cultivating, 1 national off-campus training base for college students, 1 national vocational training base for the disabled, 1 national teaching program of virtual simulation experiment, and more than 160 provincial first-class majors and reform programs of education and teaching. Majors of Marine Technology and Marine Engineering have gained the professional certification of the industry category.The Major of Primary School Education has been accredited by the Ministry of Education as qualified educational major at level 2. The university is listed as college with national innovation and entrepreneurship training program for students, and a provincial breeding base for the integration of production and innovation in educational practice. In the past three years, students of QNU has won nearly 1300 prizes in different national or international academic competitions , and both entrepreneurship rate and entrepreneurial survival rate were soaring high, which makes the QNU graduate employment rate remain above 97%.

QNU prioritizes disciplinary construction, endeavors to make engineering discipline extraordinary, humanities and social science discipline excellent and make teacher education discipline perfect. It develops 14 provincial-level disciplines. Among them, Musicology and Dance have been officially selected as the first-class discipline of Fujian province. Six disciplines, including Chemical Engineering and Technology, Food Science and Engineering, Textiles Science and Engineering, Pedagogy, Optical Engineering and Business Administration, have been approved as the application-oriented disciplines in Fujian. Seven disciplines have been approved as provincial key disciplines such as Chinese Language and Literature , Biology. Currently QNU owns two postgraduate tutor teams, and the postgraduate teaching cases have been added to the provincial teaching cases system. It has successively been recognized as the provincial postgraduate education innovation base and the first batch of provincial master degree cultivating construction unit.The MFA (Master of Fine Arts) has successfully gone through the inspection and acceptance of Project Regarding Cultivation of Talents Meeting the Special National Needs by the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council, and has been approved by the Ministry of Education to take in students from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Aiming for scientific research innovation and academic prosperity and development, QNU keeps on strengthening platform construction and improving the capacity for scientific research.There are 36 provincial scientific research and innovation platforms such as the 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center, key laboratories, engineering (technological) research center, humanities and social science base, the new university -characteristic think-tank , etc. It was selected as the first batch of think-tank members for Development Research Center of Fujian Government. Research Bases founded by QNU include Minnan Culture Research Base affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Science and Cultural Studies Center, Minnan Cultural Exchange Research Base and South -China Faculty Teaching and Research Institute co-constructed by CAHE(China Association of Higher Education). Comprehensive platforms integrating R&D(research and development) and technology achievements transferring include Quanzhou Normal University—Innovative Environmental Analysis and Monitoring Center, Shishi Workstation Integrating Enterprises , Institutions of Higher Learning and Research Institutions, Quanzhou Normal University—Nan’an Mechanical Equipment Innovation Service Center, Engineering and Technology Research Institute of Quanzhou Normal University (Shishi) Eco-Intelligent Fabric Industry. Successively QNU has obtained approximately 50 provincial and ministerial scientific research achievement awards , including 1 second prize by the Ministry of Education and 3 first prize for Fujian Social Science Achievement Award. In the past 5 years, more than 50 national research projects and more than 1200 other research projects have been undertaken by faculty members of QNU. The QNU Forum of Seeker has been selected as the first batch of Top Ten Philosophy and Social Science Forums among Fujian Institutions of Higher Education.

QNU adheres to the development strategy of To serve for support, to contribute for development to build the university-locality development community. It formulates and implements the QNU Action Plan for Serving the Economic and Social Development of Quanzhou and has built 8 philosophical and social science innovation platforms to provide consulting services for governments, enterprises and institutions as well as 6 talent training platforms to provide intellectual support for Quanzhou's economic and social development. QNU concentrates on the construction of the affiliated primary and middle schools to jointly promote high-quality education with Fengze District, Licheng District, Jinjiang City and other local governments.By expanding the 4 international exchange platforms, it contributes to the construction of the Pilot Zone of the Maritime Silk Road. The 10 science and technology innovation platforms developed by QNU connect with the 3 major industrial sectors of the city, including traditional industry, heavy-chemical industries, high-tech industry, providing technical support for industrial transformation and upgrading. QNU co-builds the Quanzhou Intelligent Manufacturing Training Base with Quanzhou HUST Research Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing. It also seeks collaboration with Tianjin University, Donghua University and other prestigious universities to build high-level disciplines, platforms and talent teams.QNU focuses on promoting university-enterprise cooperation with Sinochem Group, Sinopec, Anta Group, Billion Holdings, Panpan Foods, Gaoke Environmental Protection to advance the integration of education and industries, and co-training the innovative, application-oriented talents of comprehensive quality.

 Rooted in the profound history and culture of Quanzhou, QNU emphasizes on cultural heritage and research on Minnan culture and Maritime Silk Road culture, contributing to the inheritance, innovation and global promotion of the Quanzhou culture. Committed to the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, the university is the pioneer of Nanyin major.QNU has been granted as Provincial Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture Education Demonstration Base, selected into the first batch of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture Inheritance Base by the Ministry of Education as the only university in Fujian Province. Nanyin’s new works named Phoenix Seeking the Mate has been listed as the Key Creation Drama of the National Stage Art by the Ministry of Culture.

QNU gives full play to its advantages and vigorously expands its open education and international cooperation and exchanges. To serve Belt and Road Initiative,QNU develops education for international students and has been approved to recruit students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan. Different Scholarships including QNU International Student Scholarship,TSL International Exchange Foundation, Fujian Provincial Government Scholarship for International Students are available to those outstanding and eligible  students and about 200 overseas students have been enrolled in the past three years from the United States, Russia, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Micronesia, Angola, Zambia, etc..And International Training Center for Mariners has been set up to train seamen from countries along the Belt and Road such as Bangladesh, Nepal.QNU has partnership with more than 60 universities around the world and has collaboration with many foreign universities, including the University of Missouri in the United States, the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom, the Palacký University in the Czech Republic, and the Soonchunhyang University in South Korea, etc. QNU develops partnership with University of Lyon in France and Quanzhou Entrepreneurs’ Federation focusing on research in sports industry. QNU developed its collaboration with Brazil Beach Football Association to promote football culture and education and with the Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie in Poland to carry out heritage protection and research on traditional music. To strengthen Fujian-Taiwan cooperation, QNU carries out the joint training talent projects with Taiwan universities, including Fu Jen Catholic University, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology,Yuan Ze University, Pingtung University . More than 500 teachers and students of QNU gain exposure on the world stage through exchange programs every year. Committed to the promotion of Chinese language and culture, QNU became one of the first two universities in Fujian province to send Chinese language  teaching volunteers to Philippines in 2005. In 2014, QNU worked as a partner with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, up to now has sent about 400 volunteers to the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Brazil and other countries to teach Chinese language and promote Chinese culture.In 2012, the University was awarded Fujian Overseas Chinese Education Base .QNU has undertaken various Chinese-learning activities for overseas Chinese students and trained more than 1,000 overseas Chinese students Since 2011.

In recent years, QNU has embarked on a new journey and followed important instruction of General Secretary Xi Jinping in 2017 to build a multi-disciplinary university by putting forward the three-step development strategy,implementingfive-projectconstruction and encouraging second-round entrepreneurship. Every faculty member of QNU will remain true to the mission firmly to build a multi-disciplinary, distinctive and high-level university.