Northwest University has its origin in Shaanxi College founded in 1902, and assumed its present name in 1912. It was renamed National Northwest University in 1923, and called National Xi'an Provisional University after the merger with National Beiping University, Beiping Normal University, Beiyang College of Engineering and other institutions, which moved inland to Shaanxi when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in 1937. The Provisional University was subsequently named National Northwest Associated University in 1938, and National Northwest University in 1939. In the early period after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Northwest University was one of the 14 comprehensive universities under the direct administration of the central government's Ministry of Education. In 1958, the University came under the administration of the Shaanxi Provincial Government. In 1978, it was designated as one of the key universities in China. Currently, the University is one of China’s leading comprehensive, multi-disciplinary universities of liberal arts, sciences, engineering, management, law and medicine, with equal emphasis on both teaching and research. It is also one of the institutions of higher learning listed in the State's Project 211, and one of the universities supported by the State in its western China development campaign.
Academics
The University, located in the famous ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an, has 3 campuses with a total area of, and 22 schools and departments offering 67 undergraduate programs. It is one of the first institutions empowered to set up doctoral, postdoctoral and master’s programs, to approve the promotion to professorship, and to select Ph. D. supervisors. To date the University has established 37 doctoral programs, 92 Master's programs and 9 postdoctoral programs. The University also boasts 6 national bases for talent training, one national education base for cultural education of college students, 3 national key disciplines, 39 provincial key disciplines, one national engineering and technology center, 11 ministerial or provincial key labs and engineering and technology research centers. The University contracts for over 100 research projects of national importance each year, including the 863 Program, the Program 973, the National Basic Research Program, the Summit-Scaling Project, and the projects of the National Natural Science Foundation and the National Social Sciences Foundation. Since the Chinese economic reform in 1978, the faculty has won over 800 awards for research achievements and published over 20,000 academic papers and 1,200 books.
Rankings
In 2017, Times Higher Education ranked the university within the 801-1000 band globally.
Staff and students
The University has a faculty and staff of over 2,300, of which 1,100 are full-time faculty, and nearly 600 are professors and associate professors. The faculty is also distinguished by 2 academicians and 7 part-time academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and 4 honored professors under the auspices of the "Cheung Kong Scholars Program". The University's student population amounts to about 18,000 including 2,000 doctoral and graduate students, and 150 international students. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the University has educated more than 100,000 graduates of different disciplines for the nation. The University was praised as "the Mother of Chinese Petroleum Engineering Talents" and "the Cradle of Economists".
