NJU’s growth happens to be directly linked with the future of China and its own ever-changing society. Nanjing Higher Normal School, the predecessor of NJU, played an important part within the upsurge of Chinese nationalism following May Fourth Movement in 1919. Within the early 1920s, a group of Chinese communist forerunners using this university released the theory of Marxism to the general public. The Next National Conference of Chinese Communist Youth League was also placed here. Throughout the Anti-Japanese War, Pan Shu, Liang Xi and Jin Baoshan, distinguished teachers from the university (then known as National Central University), arranged the “Natural Sciences Forum” along with the “Democracy and Science Community”, which eventually resulted in the beginning of the democratic party “Jiu San Culture.” During the following Liberation War, the school is definitely in the front of the fight for democracy and nationalism. On May 20, 1947, students from National Central University initiated an “Anti-Starvation, Anti-Civil war, and Anti-Persecution” strategy, later known as the “May 20th Patriotic Students Movement.” Such a fact-seeking spirit continues to be taken forward for the era when the university was renamed Nanjing University. In May 1978, one scholar from the Philosophy Department published in the Guangming Daily articles entitled “Practice Will Be The Main Criterion for Assessment Truth” which evoked a heated debate to the “criterion of truth” and attracted nationwide attention.

·Achievements
Because China’s change and opening up inside the late 1970s, NJU has steadily developed multidisciplinary applications in humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, technological sciences, life sciences, modern engineering, and management. Currently, NJU is composed of 21 colleges with 59 departments. It works 78 undergraduate programs, 213 master’s programs, 9 professional master’s programs, 147 Ph.D. programs (under 23 key procedures), and 23 postdoctoral research stations. Moreover, NJU has one national laboratory and six national key laboratories, 5 key laboratories of the ministry of education, 2 design facilities of the ministry of education, 2 Jiangsu provincial key laboratories, 21 national key disciplines, 24 provincial key disciplines; It also houses 8 national bases for training and researching in basic sciences and systems, 3 national bases for fundamental disciplines education and research, and 4 critical basis for studying in humanities and social sciences of MOE. Among its over 2,000 colleges, there are 716 mentors and 649 associate professors, including 27 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, three members of the Chinese Academy of Design, four members of the Third-World Academy of Sciences, one member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and something fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Over the years, the NJU faculty has won numerous brands and prizes, such as Chief Experts within the “National Key Preliminary Research and Progress Program” (4), Youthful and middle-aged Authorities with Distinguished Contributions in Research, Engineering and Administration (18), National Outstanding Youth Fund Award (87), Chair or Pitch Professors of “Cheung Kong Scholars Program” (50), Students within the “New Century Outstanding Skills Supporting Project” (74), and Nationwide known Teachers (7), “Talents Expansion Program” (9), “New Century Talents Growth Program” (8).

Having its multi-disciplinary applications and distinguished faculty, NJU leads the companies of higher learning in China. Statistics show that since 1992, a number of research papers by NJU university and individuals around the Science Citation Index (SCI) have placed the first among colleges in Mainland China for seven consecutive years. So did a number of the articles offered by international educational groups for ten years. Previously decade, NJU has acquired over 800 national, ministerial and provincial awards, including over 40 National Awards of Natural Sciences, Prizes of Science and Technology Progress, and Awards of Innovation. Since 2000, for instance, it’s received 11 National Awards of Natural Science (one First Prize, Ten-Second Prizes) and two of Research and Technology Improvement. From 1994 to the present, with regards to a number of the assignments awarded from the National Natural Sciences Fund and the National Social Sciences Fund, NJU continues to be one of the tops inside the ranking of the Chinese universities.

NJU has made outstanding accomplishments in student education. Its current student body totals around 43,477 (12,655 undergraduates, 11,030 students). NJU students have been representing their cutting edge competition in various competitions outside and inside of China. In 1994 and 1995, the NJU debating team won the tournament in both the national and international debating contests; in 1996 and 2005, two titles were gained within the Global English Speech Contest in Britain. Students, when graduating from NJU, have a wide acceptance within the job market for their solid educational foundations and solid potentials for future development. With regards to teachers, NJU graduates have also achieved great success. So far, eight alumni were given the USA President’s Honor, and a few scientific conclusions were named after the persons who once analyzed or worked at NJU (e.g., “Zhou-Gong: Releasing Good-Improvements Hypothesis,” “Wu: Solidarity Concept,” etc.). In 1999, NJU was the primary comprehensive university whose undergraduate education was appraised by the Ministry of Education as excellent.

NJU offers superior services for both training and research work. Its selection, one of the largest of its form in China, has an assortment of over 4.654 million volumes. On campus, there are 127 institutions, 98 interdisciplinary research facilities, and several different training and researching features including the Investigation Center, the Circle, and Information Center, and the Educational Technology Center.

·International Cooperation
As well as the superiority in training and research work, NJU is also known for the energetic exchanges using the outside world. Beginning 1979, it has established academic links with over 200 colleges and research institutions in around 70 countries and located more than 120 international conferences. Almost 2,500 faculty members have already been abroad to pursue higher levels or conduct research work, while over 1,800 overseas scholars have trained or lectured and much more than 18,000 overseas students analyzed on NJU campus. Nobel Prize laureates including Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee, Chao Chung Ting, Ilya Prigogine, Sheldon Glashow, and Robert Mandel happen to be conferred Honorary Doctorates or Honorary Professorship, and more and more renowned statesmen, experts, and social activists (e.g., former US President George Bush, former French President Francois Mitterrand, former Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawk, etc.) have visited here. NJU never stopped its efforts to investigate possible modes of assistance also to learn from international experiences in teaching, researching, and management. Such efforts resulted in the founding of the Middle for Chinese and American Studies (with all the Johns Hopkins University, US), the Sino-German Institute for Law Reports (with Gottingen University, Germany), and the Lab of Multi Media Distance Teaching System (with the Japanese Ministry of TeleCommunication). Viewed as “an offshore campus around the Chinese territory,” the Guts for Chinese and American Studies has become a successful example of educational cooperation between China as well as the United States and received much attention and acclamation from authorities of both countries.

·Future Prospects
During its development, NJU has obtained constant support from both the government along with the general public. In his 1992 visit, President Jiang Zemin urged NJU, being an educational and research center, to achieve the world standards while preserving its own unique features. In 1994, NJU was among the first band of universities in “Project 211” (which directed t0 upgrading 100 Chinese universities to the world-class ones). In July 1999 and October 2006, documents were signed between the Ministry of Knowledge and Jiangsu Provincial Government to collectively help NJU’s future development.

In May 2002, NJU celebrated its 100th anniversary and efficiently prepared the Centennial Service, the Celebrated Scientists’ Forum, and Talk with Professionals. These events were joined by more than 25,000 alumni, including guests at home and overseas (including 6 Nobel Prize laureates, more than 120 academicians, and around100 university presidents). Seven alumni were given the Centennial Achievement Gold Medal. Contribution from your alumni and other options came to RMB139 million.

Inside the new millennium, NJU can deepen its reforms while holding on its practices. Looking at excellence and innovativeness, it’s headed to be a world-class thorough research university having a global perspective, and so it’ll enjoy an even more prominent role in China’s rise within the 21st century.