Henan University

Located in Kaifeng, a famous historic city which used to be the capital of China during seven different dynasties, Henan University, founded in 1912, was originally named as Preparatory School for Further Study in Europe and America. Stood together with Tsinghua Preparatory School for Further study in America (Tsinghua University) and Shanghai Nanyang Public School (Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Xi’an Jiao Tong University) as like the three legs of a tripod, Henan University was one of the three major schools to prepare students for overseas study.

And then its name went through several changes including Zhongzhou University (1923), Henan Zhongshan University (1927), Provincial Henan University (1930), National Henan University and so on. In 1940s Henan University had developed into an influential comprehensive university with 6 schools, namely, the School of Liberal Arts, School of Science, School of Engineering, School of Agriculture, School of Medicine and the School of Law.

The name Henan University was restored in 1984. In 2000, Henan University merged with Kaifeng Normal College and Kaifeng Medicine College to become the new Henan University. In October 2008, the Henan provincial Government and the Ministry of Education signed an agreement to jointly support the future development of Henan University therefore allowing Henan University to formally enter the list of the universities which are jointly developed by the provincial government and the ministry. Henan University is an institution of Chinese government scholarship and Confucius Institute Scholarship.

Henan University has established friendly relationship with more than 70 colleges in more than 40 countries and has become a member of the World Association of Universities and the Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific. Now there are more than 60,000 students receiving a full-time education here (Among them there are more than 10,000 postgraduates and doctoral students and nearly 200 overseas students.), and a strong working staff of more than 4000 individuals (Among them, there are 13 full-time and half-time academicians as well as 1500 professors and associate professors.).

Now it is a comprehensive university with 12 branches of learning: literature, history, philosophy, economics, management, law, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, education and arts and so on. Henan University has 35 schools, running 89 undergraduate programs, 42 primary discipline Master’s programs, 18 professional Master’s programs, 12 primary discipline doctoral programs and 15 doctoral research centers. Henan University is home to a National Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, 3 Key Laboratories of the Ministry of Education: Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials, Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Biology and Yellow River digital geographic Technology Laboratory as well as an Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education.

Moreover, there are 4 National Education and Research Bases here: the Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development Research Center of the Ministry of Education, a National Teacher Training Base of Physical Education and Art, a Key Research Base of Social Sciences and Sports Sciences of the National Sports Bureau and a National Base of College Student Quality Education.

Henan University began teaching Chinese as a second language since 1985. By now, it has admitted more than 3500 overseas students from more than 30 countries including Japan, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, German, America, Australia, Russia, Vietnam, Nepal, Canada, Israel, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and so on.

International School for Chinese Language and Culture (ISCLC) is the special instrumentality which offers Chinese education for overseas students. It has more than 30 teachers, including part-time ones. 6 of them are professors, 8 of them are vice-professors and 6 of them have a doctor’s degree. All of the full-time teachers have the Certificate for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language given by the Ministry of Education. All of them have the experience of teaching abroad. During the more than 20 years’ Chinese-teaching to overseas students, the Center has accumulated rich teaching experience and achieved a satisfactory result. Foreign students who entered our college improved their Chinese language level rapidly.

Henan University is the Test Center for the Chinese Proficiency Test (New HSK and New HSKK) which is launched by Hanban. According to the needs of the foreign students, the New HSK Exam and the New HSKK Exam can be hold monthly.