Founded in Shanghai in October 1951, East China Normal University (ECNU) is one of the most prestigious universities in China and is sponsored by the national programs “Project 211” and “Project 985”.

With two campuses located in Minhang and Putuo District, and with a total area of over 207 hectares, ECNU has long been reputed as a Garden University for its beautiful campus scenes.

Since China opened up to the world in 1978, ECNU has developed at a breathtaking pace into a comprehensive research university. At present, the University has three faculties, 27 full-time schools, two colleges,8 advanced research institutes, a college of further education, and a national training center for secondary principals with 58 departments offering 80 undergraduate programs in humanities, education, science, engineering, economics, management, philosophy, psychology, law, history and art. Besides that, the University also offers 27 doctoral programs of the State Primary Disciplines, 38 master's programs of the State Primary Disciplines, one professional doctoral program, 19 professional master's programs and 25 post-doctoral mobile research stations.

As the first normal university founded in the country after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, ECNU has kept teacher training as one of its main features since its establishment. The Ministry of Education's Training Center for Secondary School Principals located at ECNU is a unique base for the training of secondary school principals on China’s Mainland and for advanced studies for those in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It enjoys the reputation of being the “Huangpu Military School” for secondary school principals.

ECNU boasts two State Key Labs, one National Engineering Research Center, one National Field Observation and Research Station, seven Key Labs or Engineering Centers, six Key Research Bases for Humanities and Social Sciences and one Base for Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Education, and one International Cooperation Laboratory of the Ministry of Education. It also has 10 Key Labs or Engineering Centers, seven Social Sciences Innovation Bases and Studios, and two university think-tanks for Shanghai Municipality. The university sponsors or supervises the publication of nearly 30 academic journals and periodicals. Its library collection has exceeded 4,620,000 volumes, and it also has 22 affiliated primary or secondary schools and two affiliated kindergartens.

ECNU attaches great importance to the internationalization of its development and enjoys a wide influence and an excellent reputation around the world. The university has established exchange and cooperative partnerships with more than 200 internationally renowned universities and academic institutions. ECNU is one of the Chinese universities that first began establishing Confucius Institutes with foreign universities and institutions. So far, the university has set up 9 Confucius Institutes around the world.

Among the over 4,000 strong faculty, 1737 are professors and associate professors, including 11 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences or Chinese Academy of Engineering. Currently, the number of full-time undergraduate students is 14,405 while that of graduate students is 15,771. There are also about 5,000 international students studying at ECNU.

Adhering to the university motto of “Seek truth, foster originality, and live up to the name of a teacher”, ECNU has made enormous achievements in talent-training, scientific research, community service and international exchanges. In so doing, it has significantly contributed to the development of Chinese basic education and teacher training, and the advancement of economics, sciences and society, both locally and nationally. The development and transformation of the country and the modern international metropolis of Shanghai bring huge opportunities to the university for its progress. ECNU is steadily and enthusiastically working towards its goal of establishing itself as an internationally renowned high-level research university, with a number of first-class disciplines and a well coordinated discipline development, while also taking the lead in the development of China's teacher training.