Shaanxi Normal University — guide for international students

Shaanxi Normal University (陕西师范大学, SNNU) traces itself to the Shaanxi Provincial Teacher Training College founded in 1944 and took its present name in 1960. It came under the direct management of the Ministry of Education in 1978, joined Project 211 in 2005, and entered the first round of the national Double First-Class initiative in 2017 with one discipline, Chinese Language and Literature.

SNNU has two campuses, both in Xi’an, and the distinction matters more than its own pages make obvious. The Chang’an Campus at 620 West Chang’an Avenue holds the International Office and most degree teaching; the older Yanta Campus at 199 South Chang’an Road houses the International School of Chinese Language and Culture — and is the only campus for which the university publishes an international dormitory and a price. If your degree is based at Chang’an, ask where you will live before accepting.

The university has 27 schools, more than 19,000 undergraduates, 12,200 postgraduates and over 600 international students, taught by 3,442 full-time teachers including 679 professors. It has 25 first-level disciplines authorised for doctoral degrees, 35 for master’s degrees and 69 undergraduate majors. Since 1965 it states it has taught nearly 10,000 international students from 127 countries.

SNNU admits international students to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and to non-degree Chinese-language and visiting-student programs, through the system at snnu.17gz.org. One feature of its published information should shape how you approach it: the Study at SNNU "Admission" page lists six items and all six are scholarship notices. There is no dated 2026 notice for self-funded degree applicants — the university clearly admits them, and publishes a full tuition table at all three levels, but their requirements and deadlines appear only in an undated prospectus that still points at an older application portal. Confirm your own deadline with snnuiso@snnu.edu.cn before paying for an HSK sitting or a notarisation.

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 Shaanxi Normal 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.

SNNU’s funding comes from two sources that behave quite differently. Four Chinese Government Scholarship channels run through the China Scholarship Council under SNNU’s agency number 10718 — full scholarships that waive tuition and accommodation and pay a monthly stipend. Two further schemes come from the Xi’an municipal government and are the ones most applicants here will actually compete for: the "Belt & Road" award is a one-off cash grant rather than a full ride, while the "Five Central Asian Countries" program is a comprehensive package restricted to five countries. Deadlines run from February to June rather than clustering, and you may not hold more than one award at a time. Note what is absent too: SNNU publishes no Shaanxi provincial scholarship, and its own international student scholarship page on the older admission.snnu.edu.cn site still shows a 2018 window.

SNNU’s research follows its identity as a teacher-training university with strong chemistry and life sciences attached. Its one national-level platform is the National Engineering Laboratory for Resource Development of Endangered Crude Drugs in Northwest China, in the School of Life Sciences since June 2008. Alongside it sit three Ministry of Education key laboratories — Medicinal Resources and Natural Products Chemistry, Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, and Modern Teaching Technology — two Ministry of Education engineering research centres, one key laboratory of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and 70 provincial innovation platforms.

SNNU’s international strategy is regional before it is global: it sits in Xi’an, the eastern end of the Silk Road, and has built its partnerships along that line. It initiated and leads three Silk Road consortia — the Teacher Education Alliance, the Humanities and Social Sciences Alliance and the Library, Archive and Press Alliance — which its own reporting describes as bringing together more than 30 institutions from China, Russia and Central Asia. It has cooperative relations with more than 200 universities in 40 countries, of which its International Office counts 51 in Asia, 38 in Europe and 34 in North America.

This is the thinnest part of SNNU’s international-student provision on the record, and it is better to say so than to guess. The Study at SNNU portal runs pages for visas, fees, graduation requirements, HSK testing, accommodation, insurance, counselling, medical services and transport — but none for careers, internships or employment, and the university publishes no placement or salary statistics for its international graduates. What it does publish is the shape of the institution: a teacher-training university that states it has produced 510,000 graduates since 1944 and describes its mission as supplying teachers and educational administrators to western China. If your plan is teaching or Chinese-language teaching abroad, the degree is aimed at that; if it is a corporate or technical career, expect to build your own path through your supervisor and school.

SNNU has two campuses in Xi’an, and the thing to understand before you arrive is that it publishes international student accommodation for only one of them. The Yihaoyuan International Students Dormitory on the Yanta Campus, at 199 South Chang’an Road, is the only housing SNNU prices on its international-student pages: twin-bed rooms in two grades with a bathroom, air conditioning, wardrobe, internet connection and a shared washing machine. The International Office and most degree teaching, however, are on the Chang’an Campus at 620 West Chang’an Avenue, about half an hour across the city, and no Chang’an dormitory rate is published. Living off campus is permitted, but you must register your address with the police. SNNU also holds the Red Candle School History Museum and what it calls the first comprehensive education museum in China.

Accommodation

Dining

SNNU does not publish dining information — canteen locations, opening hours or meal prices — for international students: its service pages cover accommodation, insurance, counselling, medical care and transport but not food. Budget for meals separately and check on arrival. Both campuses have student canteens, and the Yanta Campus sits in a dense part of southern Xi’an with plenty of food nearby; halal food is widely available in the city, though the university makes no published commitment about it on campus.

Facilities

Reach the International Office (International Exchange and Cooperation Office), Shaanxi Normal University — Room 628-1, Administrative Building, Chang’an Campus for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type university programs and offices are based on campus in Xi'an.