Liaocheng Universtiy (LU), a provincial comprehensive university, is located in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, which is a famous national historical and cultural city known as “Water City North of the Yangtze River.” LU was founded in 1974 as of Shandong Teachers’ College, Liaocheng Branch. In 1981, with the approval of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Liaocheng Branch was renamed as Liaocheng Teachers’ College. And then in 2002, approved by the Ministry of Education of the PRC, LU adopted its present name. Mr. Ji Xianlin, the master of Oriental Studies, is the honorary President of LU. Professor and doctorial supervisor Cheng Yuhai is the Secretary of the Party Committee of LU, and Professor and doctorial supervisor Song Yiqiao, the current President.
Liaocheng University has been authorized to issue master’s and bachelor’s degrees and to provide training courses for people with equivalent education record to apply for master’s degree or for the master degree of education speciality. LU now has 21 colleges, 3 teachingdepartments, 45 master degree programs, 62 undergraduate degree programs,1 appointed professor of “Taishan Scholar” entitled by Shandong Province, 1 key research base of social science planning of Shandong Province, 7 provincial key academic subjects, 2 provincial key research labs, 1 provincial research base of humanity social science, and 2 provincial research centres. At present, the enrollment of full-time students totals 25,408.
The university has a staff of 1470 full-time teachers, of which 201 are professors; 268, associate professors; 170, with doctor degrees; 594 with master degrees. Among them 8 teachers have received special government subsidies from the State Council, 7 have been awarded the title of national excellent teachers, 1 acquired the honorary title of excellent teacher of ideological and political work of national colleges and universities, 8 were awarded the excellent teacher prize of normal colleges and universities financed by Zeng Xianzi Educational Foundation, 38 were assessed as either the top specialized talents at provincial level, or the young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions, or the young and middle-aged leading scholars in a branch of learning, and 33, as renowned teachers, excellent teachers, or excellent educators of Shandong Province. Meanwhile, a great number of famous scholars like Ji Xianlin, Zhang Xinshi, Xue Qunji have been engaged as visiting professors or part-time professors.
Having many modern teaching buildings, lab buildings, libraries, web centers, and gymnasiums, LU covers a total area of over 3000 mu with the building area of 840,000 m2. The total value of laboratory apparatus and equipments is 180 million yuan. Its libraries possess a collection of books up to 2,130,000 volumes and 1,780,000 electric books and journals. With its picturesque sceneries of lake and evergreen plants, the campus boasts of its elegant environment. LU has been awarded the honorary titles of “Garden-like Unit” and “Civilized Campus” by Shandong Province.
Taking teaching as the central task, seeking the all-round improvement in students moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic qualities and aiming at nurturing applied high level specialists with solid academic foundations, good qualities and abilities of practice and innovation, LU continuously reinforces the reforms in education and strengthens the administration of teaching. The quality of education and teaching in LU is improved steadily. In recent years, about 21% of full-time graduating students from LU were admitted as postgraduates every year, and in some specialties, the proportion even surpasses 60%. The graduate employment rate at the end of each academic year is over 87%. Two specialties were assessed as “distinctive subjects” of provincial level, and 5 as provincial high-quality courses. 44 excellent teaching achievements were awarded by the Province or the State, one of which won the first prize of nation, 2, second prizes, 8, first prizes of the Province and 21, second prizes. LU was assessed many times as a national and provincial advanced unit for excellent higher education and moral education.
LU actively expands the activities of international communication and cooperation and runs joint schools with domestic and foreign educational institutions. The administrative level of running such schools is steadily improved. Now LU has established friendly intercollegiate relations and exchange and cooperative relations with more than 100 foreign universities and institutions from over 40 countries and districts such as U.S., Japan, Canada, Russia, Australia South Korea, etc.