Shanghai Normal University — guide for international students

Shanghai Normal University (上海师范大学) was founded in 1954 as Shanghai Teachers Training College. Its official history records a series of splits, mergers and renamings — Shanghai Teachers College in 1958, Shanghai Teachers University in 1984, a 1994 merger with Shanghai Teachers College of Technology — and the English name Shanghai Normal University (SHNU) was adopted in 2003. Between 1997 and 2003 it absorbed several institutions, including the Shanghai Tourism Institute and Shanghai Xingzhi Art School. It was approved to award master’s degrees in 1981 and to admit doctoral candidates in 1986, and since 2021 it has been part of Shanghai’s programme for building high-level local universities.

SHNU is a public university run by the Shanghai municipality rather than a national Double First-Class institution. Teacher education remains its core identity, but it is comprehensive in scope: the university’s own introduction lists 22 colleges across 11 disciplinary categories, from philosophy, education and literature to science, engineering, agriculture and the arts, on two campuses — Xuhui, in the city, and Fengxian, in the south of Shanghai — totalling about 1.47 million square metres.

The same introduction counts more than 20,000 full-time undergraduates, over 10,000 graduate students and more than 1,600 international students. Figures differ between official pages, which is worth knowing before you quote one: the Chinese introduction lists 74 undergraduate majors, the English homepage says 93 undergraduate disciplines in 20 colleges, and the English Statistics page (August 2023 data) gives 91 bachelor’s programs and “over 1,000” international students. QS lists 1,273 international students.

SHNU admits international students to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and to non-degree Chinese language study. There are two front doors, and it matters which one you use. The International College for Chinese Studies (ICCS, 对外汉语学院) publishes its own 2026 brochures for its Chinese-taught degrees — the bachelor’s majors Chinese Language (tracks in Business Chinese and Tourism & Culture) and Chinese International Education (tracks in Chinese Language Education and Chinese Language & Culture), the master’s in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics or International Chinese Education, and the PhD in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics — and for its language courses; it registers applicants through its own online form and sets its own entrance tests. Degree programs in SHNU’s other colleges go through the International Exchange Office’s online system at apply.shnu.edu.cn. That office published its 2026 bachelor’s guide on 4 December 2025; its most recent university-wide master’s and doctoral guides are the 2025 editions, so the non-ICCS tuition and HSK figures below are quoted from 2025 guides and should be confirmed with the International Student Office. Every degree route is essentially Chinese-taught: the 2025 guides say instruction is in Chinese or English depending on the program, but SHNU does not publish a list of English-taught programs or their fees — English-taught applicants are told to contact the International Student Center. Undergraduate applicants to ICCS must submit a China Scholastic Competency Assessment (CSCA) score certificate. Age floors are low: 16 for bachelor’s study; for ICCS routes the upper limit is 60, with a master’s floor of 18 (20 in the 2025 university-wide guide) and a doctoral floor of 22. Applicants under 18 need a guardian’s guarantee.

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 Shanghai 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.

SHNU channels four kinds of funding to international students: the Chinese Government Scholarship through its High-level Graduate Program, the Shanghai Government Scholarship, the International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship, and ICCS’s own entrance scholarships. Only the Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship guide for 2026 publishes its coverage and deadlines in readable form on the International Exchange Office site; for the Chinese Government and Shanghai Government schemes the 2026 notices were posted on 29 December 2025, and the coverage below is from the 2025 guides, so check the 2026 notice for current amounts and dates. Scholarship deadlines fall well before the ICCS entrance tests — plan on applying in spring.

Research at SHNU is strongest where its teacher-education mission meets the humanities, education and the sciences. The university reports 10 disciplines in the ESI global top 1% and hosts one UNESCO teacher-education centre alongside national and Shanghai municipal laboratories; recent faculty papers highlighted on the homepage include work in Nature Communications and Inventiones Mathematicae. For international students the most relevant research strand is ICCS’s work in linguistics, applied linguistics and international Chinese education, which underpins its master’s and doctoral programs. Official counts vary by page and date: the Chinese introduction lists 14 first-level doctoral programs, 31 first-level master’s programs, 28 professional master’s degrees and 11 postdoctoral stations, while the English Statistics page (August 2023) gives 11 doctoral, 33 master’s and 9 postdoctoral programs and 5 ESI top-1% disciplines.

SHNU’s International Exchange Office (国际交流处) handles everything from student exchange and joint programs to Confucius Institutes, foreign experts and international students, and supports the Shanghai Municipal International Student Preparatory Academy. The university’s introduction lists more than 250 partner institutions in over 40 countries and more than 110 exchange programs.

SHNU does not publish employment statistics for international graduates. What it does publish is the rulebook for off-campus internships, which matters because unauthorised work is treated as illegal employment in China. Under SHNU’s regulations, degree students and exchange students — but not language students — holding an X1 study residence permit may take one internship at a time, related to their major, after approval through their college and the International Student Office and endorsement on their residence permit.

Most international students live and study on the Xuhui campus at 100 Guilin Road, inside central Shanghai, where ICCS and the International Exchange Office are based; some programs are on the Fengxian campus to the south. International student rooms are priced per day, with a much lower international-student rate when you book a full semester — which makes the published rack rates look alarming if you read them alone.

Accommodation

Dining

SHNU does not publish canteen details for international students on its admissions pages; both dormitories have shared kitchens, and the Xuhui campus is surrounded by the restaurants of central Shanghai.

Facilities

Reach the International College for Chinese Studies (对外汉语学院) for Chinese-language programs; International Student Office, International Exchange Office (国际交流处) for other degrees and scholarships for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type university programs and offices are based on campus in Shanghai.