The Zhou Enlai School of Government (ZSG) in Nankai University was established in May, 2004. It consists of six departments: Politics, Public Administration, International Relations, Sociology, Social Work and Social Policy, and Social Psychology. It also includes the MPA Education Center and the Center of Ethnic Studies. ZSG is a comprehensive institution which covers five academic programs: politics, sociology, ethnic studies, public administration and psychology. The school has a library, an applied psychology lab, an electronic administration lab and a social work lab. Some interdisciplinary institutions of the university, such as the Academy of International Studies, the Center of Asian Studies, the Center of Human Rights Studies, the Center of Ethnic Studies and the Center of American Studies, are affiliated with the school. There is also the Center of Social Psychology, the Center of Chinese Rural Area Studies, the Center of Social Survey and the Center of University Students’ Career Planning.
The Political Science Department of Nankai University was firstly established in 1923, removed in 1952 when Chinese universities were reorganized, and reestablished in 1984. After more than ten years of hard working, the political science program has developed very quickly. A number of young scholars have been well-established academically and become well-known in China or internationally. The program of public administration, as a rising new program since 1990s, is also developing stably. We have begun to establish the program of ethnic studies in our school.
The Department of Sociology at Nankai University was set up in 1982 as the first sociology department in Chinese universities after the sociology program was recovered in China. The early efforts to recover the sociology in China started at Nankai University. Under the leadership of Prof. Fei Xiaotong, a program to train sociologists in China was established at Nankai. This program is well known in social sciences in China. A large number of scholars of sociology in China are graduates of this program and they have played significant roles in the process of the recovery and development of Sociology in China. Now, the sociology program at Nankai University still makes great contribution to the education and academic development of sociology in China. Meanwhile, the program of social psychology and the program of social work have also developed quickly. There is also a post-doctoral program of sociology.
Up to December,2022,there are 126 faculty members in the school; 101 of them are teaching faculty, 41 of them are professors, 1 lecture professor, 43 associate professors, 16 lecturers, 18 doctoral supervisors. 100 of the teaching faculty members have doctoral degrees, 78% of the total faculty, several of them have got their degrees in the United States, Japan and South Korea.
At present, there are 1737 students totally in Zhou Enlai School of Government, 336 of them are graduate students , 605 are graduate students for Master degree, 796 undergraduate students.
After more than two decades of development, the programs of political science and sociology at Nankai University have already become an important force with their own distinguished characteristics in the social sciences of China. Firstly, we work hard on keeping high level of teaching and research, with many achievements of high quality. In recent years, many of the publication by our professors, such as Zhu Guanglei, Guan Xinping, Wang Chuhui, Gao Yongjiu, and Cheng Tongshun, have received the Humanities and Social Sciences Awards honorably offered by the Ministry of Education, Tianjin and other provinces or ministries.
Secondly, Zhou Enlai School of Government has an enthusiastic team of faculty with a favorable structure of age and degree. The average age of the professors is 49, and the average age of doctoral supervisors is 47; in some programs, all the teachers have doctoral degrees. There are a number of young scholars in our programs, and some of these young scholars are establishing themselves or have a bright future in their own research fields.
Thirdly, Zhou Enlai School of Government has a wide rang of exchanges with many universities in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, and Hong Kong, Taiwan. We have held a number of international or cross-strait academic symposiums on issues of politics and international relations, public administration, and social policy. Most of our faculty members have experiences of international exchange, about 10% of our faculty members do research, attend conferences or teach abroad every year. Until now, six professors of our school have received the Fulbright grants to research in the United States. Henry Kissinger, Kim Dae-Jung, Tetsundo Iwakuni, and Kenneth Waltz, and Lin Nan are visiting professors of our school honorably invited by our university.
Fourthly, many of our research results have been forwarded to central or Tianjin government agencies for policy references.
Finally, in the recent national evaluation of the academic programs, the program of sociology and the program of political science are placed the fourth and the fifth position respectively. It is good news for all the faculty members and students in Zhou Enlai School of Government. We will continue to work hard in the new century.
We welcome wholeheartedly young friends with doctoral degrees from well known universities in China and other countries to join Zhou Enlai School of Government at Nankai University. We would like to cooperate with other institutions in teaching, academic research, policy advising, training and international exchanges, working together to promote the development of the academic programs in our school.
