Xinyang Normal University is located in the south of Henan Province and is one of the two key normal universities in Henan Province. It is known as "the cradle of teachers" and "the most beautiful university in Henan Province." It was founded in 1975 and was upgraded to a university-level school in 1978 with the approval of the State Council. In 1998, it was approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council as a master's degree authorized institution. In 2018, it was approved as a construction unit of Henan Province for the awarding of doctoral degree.

Basic information: During the undergraduate education of more than 40 years and postgraduate education of 20 years, XYNU has accumulated a wealth of experience. There are 27,157 full-time students in the university, including 1,944 postgraduate students. The following schools are set up in XYNU, including School of Marxism, School of Law and Sociology, School of Liberal Arts, School of Mathematics and Statistics, School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Foreign Languages, School of Life Science, School of Tea Science and Food Technology, School of Geographical Sciences, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, School of Computer and Information Technology (School of Software), School of Tourism, School of Business, School of Physical Education, School of Educational Sciences, School of Fine Arts and Design, School of Music and Dance, School of History and Culture, School of Communication, School of International Education, School of Teacher Education, School of Medicine, School of Continuing Education, etc. With 10 disciplines including literature, history, science, engineering, economics, management, law, pedagogy, art and agriculture, XYNU has set up 83 undergraduate majors, 16 first-level disciplines authorized for master’s degree, and 14 authorized categories for master’s degree. In addition, it works together with Minnan Normal University, Chinese Academy of Forestry and other departments to cultivate PHD students.

Operating conditions: Today, XYNU has Tanshan and Huaihe Campuses. Occupying an area of over 3,100 mu and a floor space of 910,000 square meters, XYNU exhibits as a provincial model of digital campus that boasts a collection of at least 2,980,000 volumes of books and 4,652 Chinese and foreign periodicals. Various laboratories, multimedia classrooms and microteaching classrooms could fully meet the needs of education and teaching.

Currently, we have more than 1,900 faculty members, among whom 582 teachers hold a title of professorship or associate professorship, more than 1400 teachers have master or doctor degrees, and over 200 either enjoys special allowances from the State Council or honorable titles of “Outstanding Expert”, “Distinguished Professor”, “Academic and Technical Leader”, or “Outstanding Teacher” at the provincial level. And in its full-time undergraduate and graduate programs, XYNU now has a total enrollment of 27,157 students.

Education and teaching: By fostering integrity and promoting rounded development of people, XYNU has formed her own complete system of talent cultivation. In XYNU, the professional construction has a good momentum of development. We have 11 national first-class undergraduate majors, 4 national specialties and pilot majors for comprehensive reform, 21 provincial first-class undergraduate majors, 23 provincial specialties and pilot majors for comprehensive reform, and 1 provincial pilot major for talent training mode reform in engineering education.

Great breakthroughs have also been made in curriculum construction. We have 4 national courses such as national first-class courses and national high-quality resource sharing courses, and 126 provincial courses such as provincial first-class courses and provincial high-quality online open courses. There are 20 provincial excellent teaching organizations and 8 provincial excellent teaching teams. There are 12 provincial virtual simulation experimental teaching projects and 9 provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers. We have won 3 national and 70 provincial teaching achievement awards.

In 2007, we were rated as excellent in the undergraduate teaching level evaluation by the Ministry of Education. In 2018, we passed the audit and evaluation of undergraduate teaching work by the Ministry of Education, and passed the second-level certification of Teachers’ majors in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Chinese Language and Literature, Ideological and Political Education, and Applied Physics. XYNU has been approved as the national language promotion base, and leads the establishment of the“Southern Henan Teacher Education Alliance”, rendering a cooperative education mechanism among universities, local governments and basic education institutions. In addition, XYNU has established several provincial-level teaching and research platforms.

Academic research: With a solid foundation, XYNU has established a complete range of disciplines, and basically built up a comprehensive university discipline system. The "Ta-pieh Mountain Agricultural Biological Resources Protection and Utilization Discipline Cluster" was selected as the first batch of provincial advantageous characteristic discipline construction project. There are 2 special backbone disciplines, 1 much-needed special backbone disciplines and 10 key disciplines, and 1 discipline in the top 1% of ESI in Henan Province. Four disciplines including Marxist theory, education, psychology and mathematics were listed in the "best disciplines" ranking of soft science for three consecutive years from 2018 to 2020. In the fifth round of national discipline assessment, two disciplines--Marxist theory and mathematics--were on the list. In the first national professional degree level assessment, Master of Education received a C- level.

XYNU strives to improve its contributions to economic and social development and enhance its core competitiveness by building a research platform and establishing an effective mechanism and model for in-depth cooperation with other universities, research institutes, enterprises and localities.We have 28 provincial key scientific research platforms, such as the efficient utilization of non-metallic mineral resources in Henan Province, biology of tea tree, microelectric energy, analysis and application of big data of education in Henan Province, collaborative prevention and control of environmental pollution in water and soil in Henan Province, 9 innovative science and technology teams in Henan Province, 4 philosophical and social science innovation teams in Henan universities, etc.

XYNU has built the first international testing platform for the real power generation capacity of photovoltaic systems with National University of Singapore and Hehai University, Xinyang Forest Ecosystem Positioning Research Station with Henan University and Xinyang Municipal Government, the Key Laboratory of Ta-pieh Mountain Population Ecological Simulation and Control with Chinese Academy of Forestry, and Ta-pieh Mountain Spirit Research Institute and Xinyang Development Research Institute with Xinyang Municipal Government, etc. In recent five years ，XYNU has acquired over 173 projects of the National Natural Science Foundation and the National Social Science Foundation. XYNU was the first to establish the Institute of Yanhuang Studies in China and was awarded the special commission project "Introduction to Yanhuang Studies" by the National Social Science Foundation.

Cooperation and exchange: The establishment of the " Ta-pieh Mountain Old Revolutionary Base College Alliance" enhances our influence and radiation power in the region. Expanding the perspective of international education, XYNU has established exchange and cooperative relations with universities and educational institutions in more than 10 countries and regions. Framework cooperation agreements have been signed with Plymouth State University in the United States, Aldovar University in France, Belarusian State University, University of Moulay Ismail in Morocco, Federal University of Ural in Russia, Central China Normal University, Henan University, Henan Normal University and other universities. To strengthen international academic exchanges, we have invited renowned experts and scholars at home and abroad, such as Canadian Sinologist Bai Runde, Chinese Academy of Sciences academicians Yang Shuzi, Fan Mingwu, Tang Shouzheng, Wu Kongming, and famous mathematicians Zhu Guangtian and Chen Lansun, to give lectures and guest professors, opening new channels for international cooperation and exchange in teaching, research and talent training.

Since 2008, XYNU has enrolled its first batch of international students. It has successively sent students to universities in South Korea and New Zealand for further study, and accepted students from the United States, Russia, Morocco, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Vietnam, Botswana, Madagascar and other countries. At present, with the goal of enhancing the international influence of education, XYNU is expanding two-way exchanges and cooperation in education with the drive of greater openness, and striving to create an educational environment with an international perspective and multicultural integration. XYNU also actively promotes the construction of alumni associations and foundations to gather strength and facilitate its development.