Nanjing Higher Normal School: Admissions, Agriculture, and the Development of a University

Nanjing University's early institutional history is connected with the evolution of the Sanjiang and Liangjiang normal schools and Nanjing Higher Normal School. The 1915 milestone concerns a stage in the development of advanced teacher education in Nanjing. The institution then bore the name Nanjing Higher Normal School; it should not be understood as a university founded under today's name. Its first task was to meet the need for teachers in secondary and normal schools.

Jiang Qian became its first president and appointed Guo Bingwen, recently returned from the United States, as director of academic affairs, also responsible for books and instruments. Their backgrounds represented different educational resources: Jiang had been deeply shaped by traditional academy learning, while Guo had trained in education at Columbia University. Curricula, staffing, and teaching equipment thus required simultaneous attention at the outset.

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The school's June 1915 prospectus stated its purpose as training staff and teachers for normal and secondary schools. For August admissions, it planned one preparatory class each in Chinese and in physics and chemistry, plus a specialized Chinese class, with forty students per class. These were recruitment targets, not actual attendance figures. The early institution developed gradually from a limited combination of classes and subjects.

Luo Qingyi's study of early Republican admissions systems notes that Nanjing Higher Normal School assessed character and physical condition as well as written examinations. Students entering had to submit a guarantee document and a ten-yuan deposit, refundable upon graduation. Later admissions added oral examinations in which candidates drew a topic, prepared, and delivered a speech for assessment by a committee. Secondary-level Chinese, foreign languages, mathematics, history and geography, and physics and chemistry formed important examination content. The school required subject foundations while also trying to assess future teachers' expressive abilities.

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Jiang Qian adopted “sincerity” as the school motto. An August 1915 report on the school's establishment, cited by Zhai Kuifeng, explained it as the union of educational conviction and practical action: belief that education could save the nation had to be accompanied by actually building education. This disciplinary ideal continued traditional ideas of self-cultivation while connecting them to the modern normal school's mission of training teachers.

Jiang's relationship as a student of Zhang Jian offers another clue to the school's culture. Zhang valued industry and education, while Jiang brought honest self-discipline and practical responsibility into the institution. Introducing American-trained talent and modern courses did not immediately displace traditional moral language. In this history, changing academic structures and reinterpreting Confucian values occurred together.

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Although nationally administered, the school received inadequate funding. Drawing on early records, Geng Xuan notes that the planned initial allocation was 100,000 yuan, but only 50,000 was actually disbursed. Establishment and expansion therefore depended not only on educational plans but also on whether government commitments were fulfilled. As subjects multiplied, demand for teachers, equipment, and experimental facilities increased.

National Southeast University, established in 1921, initially shared its campus, staff, and finances with Nanjing Higher Normal School. The latter was incorporated into the university in 1923. Establishing a university and ending the earlier school's separate operations were connected but distinct stages. Financial pressure also encouraged the administration to seek support from local governments and industry, drawing the institution more closely into regional society.

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In 1917, Zou Bingwen accepted Guo Bingwen's invitation to head Nanjing Higher Normal School's specialized agriculture program. Drawing on Cornell University, he sought to combine teaching, research, and agricultural extension. Guo and Zou were different people: the former concentrated on overall institutional development, while the latter focused on organizing agricultural studies.

The agriculture program grew through the contributions of scientists returning from overseas and the demands of local production. Geng's research emphasizes the interaction between industrial funding and research priorities: work on improving cotton, rice, and wheat linked classrooms, experiments, and extension. As the school moved from teacher training toward broader professional education, the applications of knowledge also extended into agriculture and industrial production.

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Library development reveals specific changes in educational conditions. Ding Dong and Zhang Changxiu record that in 1915 the reading and book rooms occupied only five rooms, with books and instruments administered together. A separate library department was established in 1919. As courses expanded, the existing space could no longer meet the needs of both collections and readers, making a new library building an important university-development project.

In 1921, Guo Bingwen appointed Hong Fanwu to head library affairs and promoted preparations for a new building. After fundraising, the Mengfang Library was completed in spring 1923. A summer library-science course launched that year combined classroom instruction with practical work in the library. From rooms holding books, the library gradually became an institution supporting courses, training professionals, and serving readers from the wider public.

This process also shows that creating a university involved more than changing its name or increasing admissions. Teachers, courses, collections, experiments, and social resources had to be coordinated gradually to sustain teaching and research. The personnel and institutions accumulated during the Nanjing Higher Normal School period provided an important foundation for subsequent university-level development.

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