The predecessor of Nanning University was Yongjiang University, founded by the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Committee in 1985. In 2009, the Nanning Municipal Government commissioned Nanning Weining Group to participate in running the school in the form of a shareholding system as a co-organizer, and the two sides made it clear in the statute that they would not obtain financial returns from running the school. In 2011, a new campus built by the cooperation was put into operation. In 2012, the school was upgraded to an undergraduate university and renamed Nanning University (UNN). The university has 10 academic faculties and operates 38 undergraduate programs, covering five major disciplines such as Engineering, Management, Arts, Economics, and Education, with 21,824 full-time students, including 21,441 undergraduates.

School Philosophy

The university adheres to the socialist direction of education, upholds the non-profit principle, and maintains a local and applied positioning. It actively explores the path of applied technical universities and implements the educational concept of "Application, Openness, New Experience." With a focus on quality, characteristics, and innovation development, the school centers on talent cultivation, with professional and curriculum construction as the core, and emphasizes the integration of industry and education to nurture students. The goal is to forge an applied characteristic, anchor the local development, strengthen the integration of industry and education, and strive to cultivate high-quality applied talents for regional economic and social development in the new era.

Currently, the school has become one of the first pilot institutions for applied technical universities in the country. It is also a newly approved institution for granting master's degrees in Guangxi, a pilot school for the transformation and development of undergraduate education, a demonstration university for deepening innovation and entrepreneurship education reform in the autonomous region, and the vice chairman and secretary-general unit of the Guangxi Alliance of Applied Undergraduate Universities.

School Facilities

The school boasts a beautiful campus environment, with the national AAA-level scenic spot Bugu Lake located within the campus. The campus covers an area of 752,100 square meters, with a building area of 665,900 square meters for school buildings and 364,700 square meters for teaching and administrative facilities. The total value of teaching and research instruments and equipment amounts to 236 million yuan. The university has 395 experimental training rooms, including the Intelligent Manufacturing Research and Innovation Center, Train Driving Control Laboratory, BIM Laboratory, Art Master Workshop, and Business Simulation Training Center. There is also one key laboratory in Guangxi and one autonomous region-level demonstration experimental training center, 4 teaching and research platforms at provincial and ministerial levels, and 11 teaching and research platforms at municipal and departmental levels. In addition, there are high-end collaborative education platforms such as the Ministry of Education-ZTE ICT Industry-Education Integration Innovation Base, the former China Quality Inspection Administration China Quality Research and Education (Nanning) Base, and the Guangxi Big Data Talent Training Base. We have one autonomous region-level off-campus practical teaching base and 227 off-campus internship bases. The library covers an area of 25,800 square meters and houses 1.5204 million physical books, 2.5537 million electronic books, and 35 databases.

Teaching Staff

The school has established a faculty construction model characterized by "professor-led, backbone-supported, dual-teacher structure, and continuous development." We currently have a total of 988 faculty and staff. The faculty includes renowned experts, scholars, and industry leaders such as national outstanding teachers, recipients of special government allowances, autonomous region-level teaching masters, doctoral supervisors, art masters, and corporate technical experts. Teachers of UNN have won the first prize in the autonomous region for three consecutive sessions in the national higher education teaching innovation competition and have qualified for the national competition.

Talent Cultivation

UNN focuses on the cultivation of applied talents, deepens applied theoretical research, promotes the transformation of educational concepts towards applied education, and has published ten collections of research papers on teaching reform and two monographs.

We have deepened professional construction with 1 key (cultivation) discipline in Guangxi, 4 first-class professional construction sites in Guangxi, 9 key (characteristic) construction majors in the autonomous region, 2 national first-class courses, 12 first-class courses in the autonomous region, and 4 projects are selected for Guangxi's excellence program.

We also have deepened curriculum reform to promote teaching towards an applied education model, reconstructing the curriculum system, restructuring course contents, and rebuilding the implementation ecology of courses. The school has developed 161 applied demonstration courses and 77 core professional courses, with 2 national first-class undergraduate courses approved, 12 autonomous region-level first-class undergraduate courses, three autonomous region-level ideology and political education demonstration courses, and one autonomous region-level virtual teaching and research room.

The university has also deepened the integration of industry and education and school-enterprise cooperation to promote a talent cultivation model oriented toward applied education. It has explored and formed six collaborative education models with deep integration of industry and education. The "Food Quality and Safety" program has been approved as an autonomous region-level demonstrative industrial college. Furthermore, the university has deepened innovation and entrepreneurship education reform to transform the talent cultivation objectives towards high-quality applied talents in the new era, cultivating students' spirit and the ability for innovation and entrepreneurship. The school's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education College has been selected as an autonomous region-level innovation and entrepreneurship college. We have won five first prizes for teaching achievements at the autonomous region level.

Virtue-based Education

We attach great importance to implementing the fundamental task of moral education. It strengthens the construction of ideological and political teachers and promotes the integration of ideological and political education in curriculum and standalone courses. Since 2021, teachers of ideological and political courses have won a total of 33 awards in district-level and higher-level teaching competitions or evaluations. One teacher was selected as the "National Outstanding Teacher," one as a member of the expert committee for the construction of ideological and political courses in Nanning primary, secondary, and preschool education, and five as special invited experts (professors) of the Nanning Municipal Party Committee's preaching group. The school has nurtured the "Thick Virtue Micro Lecture Hall" moral education brand. It has created two school-based moral education brands: "Bugu Lake Volunteer Service" and "Heroic Spirit Inheritance," continuously cultivating students' spirit of public welfare and dedication, as well as promoting the socialist core values. The school employs the "Four Guidance" (guiding, advocating, instructing, and tutoring) work method, coordinates the "Ten Ways to Cultivate Talent," and constructs a "Three-Comprehensive Education" framework.

Applied Research

The university places great emphasis on conducting applied research. It has established 37 research platforms, including one key laboratory at the autonomous region level, three other provincial and ministerial-level platforms, and three municipal-level platforms. From 2021 to 2022, the school obtained 178 vertical research projects (including 25 provincial and ministerial-level projects, 148 municipal-level projects, and 5 county-level projects) and 255 horizontal research projects. The research funding obtained for these projects amounted to 30.5502 million yuan and 39.0911 million yuan, respectively. The school has published 197 high-quality papers, and obtained 90 authorized invention patents, 96 authorized utility model patents, and 30 authorized design patents. It has also contributed to the development of two group standards, with eight information reports being adopted by municipal-level and higher units. Furthermore, the school has achieved the transformation of 91 patent achievements. In the 2022 ranking of research competitiveness for private undergraduate institutions in China, Nanning University ranked 29th and was recognized as a private undergraduate institution currently occupying an excellent research position.

International Communication

We consider ASEAN countries and surrounding regions as a focus of exchange and cooperation. It hosts a provincial and ministerial-level key laboratory, Guangxi Key Laboratory of International Join for China-ASEAN Comprehensive Transportation, which is led by the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region government and Nanning University, with the participation of prestigious universities and enterprises. The school has established cooperation and exchange platforms such as the China-ASEAN Quality Research and Education Center and the Nanning (ASEAN) International Science and Technology Cooperation Demonstration Base for Rail Transit. We have been selected as a preparatory cooperative institution for the "2020 Humanities Exchange and Talent Training Base in the Field of Intelligent Manufacturing."

Currently, UNN has established collaborative relationships with 38 foreign universities. We provided urban rail transit teacher training for 18 Thai universities and jointly cultivated master's degree students with world-renowned universities such as Universiti Malaya, Universiti Putra Malaysia, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, and Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University. At the same time, we have selected 40 students to participate in short-term studies and pursue master's degrees at partner universities overseas, and received educational delegations from Thailand, Malaysia, Britain, France, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Kenya, Zambia, Mongolia, Ethiopia, Panama, Ukraine and other countries, as well as Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions. Recently, the university formally prepared for the establishment of the Faculty of ASEAN to expand international exchanges and cooperation with universities and research institutions in ASEAN countries.

Cultivation Quality

Our initial employment rate of undergraduates is higher than the average level of Guangxi universities in the same period, and the university has won the title of Advanced Collective for Employment and Entrepreneurship Work of Graduates of General Colleges and Universities in Guangxi for 11 consecutive years. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, students have won 451 national awards and 2,637 provincial and ministerial awards in academic competitions, of which the China College Students’ ‘Internet Plus’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has won 6 silver and 23 bronze in the country, and 58 gold, 82 silver, and 303 bronze, in the autonomous region, the results ranked in the forefront of universities in Guangxi. From 2018 to 2022, the university ranked 69th among similar undergraduate colleges and universities in the list of college students' disciplinary competitions in newly-built undergraduate colleges and universities in China.

Since the establishment, we have gained attention and encouragement from higher authorities, peers, and society for our reform and development. Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Wan Exiang, former Deputy Minister of Education, Lin Huiqing, and Li Xiaohong, as well as renowned educationist Pan Maoyuan, have visited the school to conduct research and provide guidance, expressing full recognition of the school's practice and achievements in cultivating applied talents. The university has been invited nearly 90 times to share its experience in building an applied technical university on various national and regional platforms. It has also welcomed visits and exchanges from nearly 200 brother institutions from within and outside the region to observe the construction of applied undergraduate education. Mainstream media outlets such as Xinhua News Agency, China Education Newspaper, Guangxi Daily, and Guangxi Broadcasting and Television Station have reported multiple times on the school's educational philosophy and characteristics. In 2016, the school was awarded the "Guangxi May Day Labor Certificate." In 2021, it was recognized as the "Second Autonomous Region Civilized Campus." In 2022, it was named one of the "First Batch of Green Schools in Guangxi." In the 2023 Best Chinese Universities Ranking, Nanning University ranked 29th among private universities nationwide and was the only private university from Guangxi to enter the top 50.