Northwest University — guide for international students

Northwest University (西北大学) traces its origins to 1902, to the Shaanxi Imperial College and the Faculty of Officialdom of the Imperial University of Peking, and has carried its present name since 1912. After Japan’s 1937 invasion, institutions including Peking University moved to Shaanxi and merged with it into the National Xi’an Temporary University, which became the National Northwest Associated University in 1938 and National Northwest University in 1939. It resumed the name Northwest University in 1950, was made a national key university in 1978, and has been jointly administered by the Ministry of Education and Shaanxi Province since March 2003.

One confusion is worth clearing up first, because it changes which university you are applying to. This is not Northwestern Polytechnical University (西北工业大学), the aerospace university also in Xi’an, nor the American Northwestern. Northwest University is the comprehensive humanities-and-sciences university on North Taibai Avenue — a Project 211 and Double First-Class institution whose two Double First-Class disciplines are geology and archaeology, and whose own pages call it the “mother of China’s petroleum talents”, the “cradle of economists” and the “cradle of writers”.

Three campuses, all in Xi’an — Taibai, Taoyuan and Chang’an — cover more than 2,360 mu (roughly 157 hectares) and hold 26 schools and departments, a graduate school, one Chinese-foreign cooperative institution and one affiliated hospital. The university teaches 81 undergraduate majors, 59 master’s authorisation points and 29 doctoral ones. Enrolment is over 30,000 — more than 14,000 undergraduates, 15,400 postgraduates and 600 international students — taught by over 3,000 staff including four academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The English Introduction page counts differently (24 schools, 87 undergraduate programs, 28,000-plus students); both are cited below and the English page appears older.

International students have been here for three decades. The School of International Education began in 1992 as the International Cultural Exchange Institute, the Central Asia Institute followed in 2014, and in November 2018 the International Office and the exchange institute merged into today’s International Cooperation Department (School of International Education). It states that it has trained more than 20,000 international students from over 60 countries, became an HSK test centre in 2018 and placed in the top 12 universities in the 2021 Chinese Government Scholarship evaluation. Northwest University publishes no QS or THE world position of its own, so this guide quotes none.

Northwest University admits international students to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and to two non-degree routes — Chinese language study and “professional study” (专业进修生) as a non-degree visiting student. Everything goes through one online system at nwu.17gz.org; scholarship applicants also register with the China Scholarship Council, where the university’s agency number is 10697 (program type B). The thing to get right is which of two application windows you are in: the School of International Education’s FAQ puts Chinese Government Scholarship and “Silk Road” applications between 1 December and 30 March, and university scholarship and self-funded applications between 1 January and 30 June — 1 December 2025 – 30 March 2026 and 1 January – 30 June 2026 for a September 2026 start. Undergraduate entry is bounded at ages 18–25 and asks for HSK Level 4; postgraduates need a supervisor’s acceptance letter first. Note the budgeting gap too: tuition is published per undergraduate major and in full for non-degree study, but nowhere for self-funded master’s or doctoral study.

Degree programs

Select a degree level to see tuition, duration and entry requirements.

Non-degree programs

Documents to prepare

Application timeline

These are the dates Northwest University published for the 2026 intake. That cycle has closed. Use them as a guide to when each step falls in the year, and check the official pages for the 2027 dates before you plan around them.

Funding comes in three layers: Chinese Government Scholarship channels administered through the China Scholarship Council, two Xi’an municipal scholarships aimed at Belt and Road and Central Asian nationals, and the International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship. The practical point is timing — the Chinese Government Scholarship and “Silk Road” channels close in the earlier of the university’s two windows (1 December to 30 March), months before the self-funded deadline of 30 June. One caveat: the notices on the school’s scholarship index are the 2025-cycle editions and no 2026-cycle replacements had been posted at the time of writing, so treat the amounts below as the most recent published terms and confirm the current deadline with the office.

Northwest University’s research reputation rests on its two Double First-Class disciplines — geology and archaeology — and on the applied chemistry and petroleum engineering that earned it the epithet “mother of China’s petroleum talents”. Its Chinese profile page counts 137 research platforms at provincial or ministerial level and above, the English Introduction page 114. At the top sit the Continental Dynamics National Key Laboratory and the National Micro-detection Systems Engineering Technology Research Center, supported by national cooperation bases in optoelectronics, nanofunctional materials and the clean utilisation of carbon-hydrogen resources, a China–Central Asia “Belt and Road” joint laboratory, and joint engineering research centres for cultural heritage digitisation and carbon dioxide capture and storage.

International work is run by the International Cooperation Department, which doubles as the School of International Education and also handles foreign faculty, cooperative education and the university’s Confucius Institutes. The English Introduction page states that Northwest University maintains collaborative relations with more than 120 institutions of higher learning and research in more than 30 countries, and the Chinese profile page records one Chinese-foreign cooperative institution among its teaching units. The centre of gravity is Central Asia and the Belt and Road: the Central Asia Institute dates from 2014 and the university co-runs a China–Central Asia “Belt and Road” joint laboratory.

Northwest University’s standing in the Chinese job market rests on three strengths its own pages name: petroleum and geology, economics and literature. For international students, the School of International Education states that it has established six international student internship bases with corporations and development zones, and its practice pages document placements rather than a formal careers service — recent examples include a “Perceive China” social practice program at BYD Auto in Xi’an and teaching practice at the Yangling Agricultural High-Tech Demonstration Zone. Be realistic about what is published: there is no employment rate, salary data or named list of international alumni, so treat any such figure you see elsewhere as unsourced.

The three campuses — Taibai, Taoyuan and Chang’an — are all within Xi’an and together cover more than 2,360 mu. The School of International Education is based at the Taibai campus address on North Taibai Avenue, in Room 107 of Building 142. International students live in shared dormitory rooms charged by semester or academic year, with hotel-style rooms available by the day for short stays. The university is an approved HSK test centre, so you can sit HSK and HSKK on campus. Student life runs through an International Student Association, now in its fifth cohort, plus volleyball, badminton and table tennis clubs and national dance troupes including Turkmen and Kyrgyz groups.

Accommodation

Dining

Northwest University does not publish canteen locations, menus or meal prices for international students on its English or Chinese pages. Xi’an is one of China’s cheapest major cities to eat in and every campus has student canteens, but budget for food separately and check on arrival.

Facilities

Reach the International Student Admissions Office, School of International Education, Northwest University for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type university programs and offices are based on campus in Xi'an.