Liaoning University (LNU) is a comprehensive institution of higher education under the administration of the Liaoning provincial government. It offers programs of varied disciplines, including Literature, History, Philosophy, Economics, Law, Science, Engineering, Business Management, and Art. It is a national “211 Project” key construction university and a world-class discipline construction university. LNU operates at three campuses: the Chongshan Campus and Puhe Campus, located in Shenyang, as well as Wusheng Campus in Liaoyang. The university covers an area of 1,481,333 square meters, including 650,000 square meters of building space.
LNU originated from the Northeast Business College established by the Northeast People’s Government in November of 1948. It was the first specialized business college founded by the Communist Party of China. In 1953 the Northeast Business College merged into the Northeast College of Finance and Economics. In 1958 LNU came into fruition through the merging of three schools: the Northeast School of Finance and Economics, various departments of Shenyang Normal College, and the School of Shenyang Russian Language. Marshal Zhu De inscribed the name of the university.
Currently LNU has over 26,000 enrolled students, including over 18,000 undergraduate students, over 7,400 students in master’s programs, and 880 PhD candidates. The university employs 2,599 faculty members, including 1,550 full-time teachers. The university has six distinguished professors in the Changjiang Scholars Program, one national distinguished young fellow, four double-appointed academicians (including two distinguished professors), 72 experts receiving special government allowances from the State Council, six scholars from the National High-level Talent Special Support Plan (namely, the “10,000 People Plan”), four scholars of the National Cultural Masters and “Four Batches of Talents” (designated by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee), two in the “Hundred-Talent Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 13 outstanding experts of the New Century Excellent Talents (supported by the Ministry of Education), and 54 selected from the “Liaoning Revitalization Talent Program” of Liaoning Province. The university additionally hosts three national and provincial Huang Danian – styled faculty groups, 11 national and provincial teaching teams, and 31 national and provincial prominent teachers.
LNU has 31 schools and 69 research institutes. It offers 78 undergraduate programs, which include 21 national first-class undergraduate programs, and 16 provincial first-class undergraduate programs. There are 29 first-level discipline master’s degree authorization units and 24 professional master’s degree authorization units, including MBA (Master of Business Administration), MPA (Master of Public Administration), and JM (Master of Law). It has 12 first-level discipline doctoral degree authorization units: Applied Economics, Theoretical Economics, Business Administration, Chinese Language and Literature, Philosophy, Law, Chemistry, Statistics, Chinese History, Physics, Environmental Science and Engineering, and Marxist Theory. The university also offers eight post-doctoral research stations: Applied Economics, Theoretical Economics, Statistics, Business Administration, Law, Marxist Theory, Chinese Language and Literature, and Philosophy. LNU teaches three national key disciplines in World Economy, Domestic Economics, and Finance. LNU’s Applied Economics program has been selected as part of the world’s first-rate discipline construction ranking. Six first-level disciplines--including Theoretical Economics, Applied Economics, Law, Business Administration, Marxist Theory, and Statistics--are included in the Category A of Liaoning Provincial’s first-rate discipline construction project.
LNU’s “Top-Notch Student Training Base in Economics” has been selected into the Base 2.0 of National Basic Discipline Top-Notch Student Training Plan, and its Marxism College has been selected as a national key Marxist School. The university has a national-talent training base for foundations of economics, a national outstanding legal-talent educational and training base, a training and research base for university counselors, and a key base for research in humanities and social sciences, i.e., the Research Center for Economy and Politics of Transition Countries, as designated by the Ministry of Education. LNU has four country and regional research centers designated by the Ministry of Education, a policy-theory research base appointed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, a “Belt and Road” national and regional research center designated by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, and two CTTI source think tanks. The university is a base for cultivating cultural quality education among college students at a national level, and it is a nationally demonstrative university for deepening innovation and entrepreneurial educational reform. It operates a state-level demonstration center for experimental teaching, five key provincial-level research bases in humanity and social sciences, eight provincial-level think tanks, 13 key provincial-level laboratories, five provincial-level engineering technology research centers, three provincial-level engineering laboratories, three provincial-level engineering laboratories, nine provincial-level demonstration centers for experimental teaching, two provincial-level virtual simulation experimental teaching centers, a national-level virtual simulation experimental teaching project, 13 provincial-level virtual simulation experimental teaching projects, and 14 provincial off-campus practice bases for college students.
The university has a full-equipped public service system, which includes libraries, the university history museum, a history museum, a natural museum, and various archives. The university library–a “Key Ancient Book Protection Unit” of the State Council and a depository library for UN documentations--has a total space of 40,000 square meters with a collection of over 3.63 million volumes/items of literature, including over 800 types of ancient and rare materials. The university is home to museums within the historical and natural sciences and is unique for its collection of over 2,000 artifacts and over 16,000 biological specimens.
LNU actively promotes international education. It features two Sino-foreign joint educational institutes, and it has established long-term, stable cooperative relations with 138 institutions of higher education and with research institutes of 33 countries. The university has cultivated more than 18,000 long-term international students and over 4,900 short-term international students. LNU has built its brand of Confucius Institutes with the utmost care, establishing Confucius Institutes at the National University of Irkutsk of Russia as well as at Dakar University of Senegal.
Looking into the future, Liaoning University is guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It will implement the CPC’s educational policies and fulfill the fundamental task of building morality and cultivation among its inhabitants and will not neglect its original mission of educating people for the Party and cultivating talents for the country. It will make unremitting efforts to build itself into a domestic first-class, internationally renowned, and a comprehensive research-oriented high-level university with distinctive regional characteristics.