A key university in Shanghai city, Shanghai Normal University (SHNU) is a comprehensive local university with salient features of teacher training and particular strength in liberal arts. The main undertakings of the university are undergraduate education with the chief aim of producing high level application-oriented talents.

Currently, SHNU has an enrollment of 22,505 full-time undergraduates, 2,827 graduates, 13,061 night school students and 682 long-term overseas students (studying here for more than one year). The university has established cooperation and exchange relationships with 182 universities and cultural and academic institutions in 25 countries and regions. For 50-odd years since its establishment, SHNU has trained more than 100,000 talents of various kinds.

Almost 70% of primary and middle school teachers, and almost 70% of school headmasters and principals are SHNU graduates. Among them there have been marvelous figures such as Tang Shengchang and Liu Jinghai, who are entitled Educational Heroes in Shanghai, Wu Xiaozhong and Gao Runhua, who are excellent school principals at state level, and Shanghai Teacher Ethic Models Tong Yingying and Zhang Yuqing. These people are representatives of excellent students graduated from SHNU and engaged in educational undertakings in our country.