History of Northwest University

Dating back to 1902, NWU originates from two institutions,ShaanxiCollegeand the Faculty of Officialdom of the Imperial University of Peking. It adopted the nameNorthwestUniversityin 1912 and was renamedNationalNorthwestUniversityin 1923. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, national universities and institutions such as Peking University, Peking Normal University, Beiyang College of Engineering and Peking Research Institute moved to Shaanxi province; and together with the then National Northwest University, they merged to form the National Xi’an Temporary University, which was renamed National Northwest Associated University in 1938 and National Northwest University in August 1939.

In the early days of the PRC, NWU was a national university directly under the control of the Ministry of Education. In 1958, it was taken over by Shaanxiprovince; and in 1978, it became a national key university. Since March 2003, NWU has been jointly administered by the Ministry of Education and the Shaanxiprovincial government. Owing to its outstanding achievements in higher education and academic research, NWU has been included in the list of the world’s leading universities by the Encyclopedia Britannica.

NWU MILESTONES (1902-2002)