An Introduction to the College of Education, Hebei University

The College of Education of Hebei University (the college) was founded in 1931 as the Department of Education of Tianjin Hebei Women’s Normal College. In 1960, it was renamed the Department of Education of Hebei University. In 1970, it moved to Baoding in Hebei Province, along with Hebei University. In 2000, the College of Educational Sciences was formed, and in 2004, it was officially named the College of Education of Hebei University.

In the 93-year long history of the college, a large number of renowned scholars with national reputation, such as Hu Yi, Han Wendong, Teng Dachun, Liu Wenxiu, Zhang Shuzu, Hu Shixiang, Xu Chunsheng, Hao Yinpu, Wang Peizuo, Xu Yichi, and Xiao Shuzhi, have laid a solid historical foundation and profound cultural heritage for the development of the college. In the 1980s, the college was granted the right to confer master’s degrees in Comparative Education, History of Foreign Education, Educational Technology, and Educational Psychology. In 1986, it was approved as the first doctoral program in History of Foreign Education nationwide. In 2007, it built the postdoctoral research station of Education. In 2010, it was granted the right to confer master’s degrees in the first-level discipline of Psychology. In 2018, it was granted the right to confer doctoral degrees in the first-level discipline of Education.

At present, the college consists of four departments and seven institutes: the Department of Education, the Department of Preschool Education, the Department of Psychology and the Department of Educational Technology, as well as the Institute of Educational History and Culture, the Institute of International and Comparative Education, the Institute of Educational Sciences, the Institute of Higher Education, the Institute of Educational Psychology, the Institute of Preschool Education and the Institute of Modern Educational Technology.

The college currently has 74 faculty members, including 61 full-time teachers. Among the full-time teachers, there are 20 professors and 25 associate professors, and the proportion of teachers with senior titles is 73.7%; there are 51 teachers with doctorates, including 16 doctoral supervisors, and the proportion of teachers with doctorates reaches 83.6%.

As for the teaching achievements, the college offers three undergraduate majors: Education, Preschool Education, and Applied Psychology, all of which have been recognized as national first-class undergraduate majors. Additionally, the major of Education has been rated as a pilot project for comprehensive professional reform in Hebei Province. Until now, the college has one national first-class course, one national quality course and four provincial quality courses in Hebei Province. Over the past five years, the teachers in the college have won two second prize of national teaching achievements awards, and two first prize and second prize teaching achievements awards respectively in Hebei Province. Besides, the college has obtained a project for national research and reform practice in the liberal arts.

As for the scientific research results, in the past five years, the college has won 21 national scientific research projects and 39 provincial and ministerial scientific research projects. Besides, it has won one third prize for outstanding achievements in national educational scientific research and 34 provincial social science outstanding achievements awards. There are 4 first prizes, 13 second prizes and 13 third prizes of Hebei Provincial social science outstanding achievement award in total. Beyond that, it has published 46 monographs, and the college has a total of 14 excellent master’s and doctoral theses in Hebei Province.

As for the talent cultivation: in the past three years, four classes have been awarded as provincial advanced class collective; within the past five years, students in the college have won more than 20 national-level awards, such as the second prize of the “Challenge Cup” National College Student Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Works Competition (2017), the second prize of the National E-commerce “Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship” Challenge for College Students (2019), the second prize of Chinese Collegiate Computing Competition (2016), the provincial special prize of the National Student Entrepreneurship Competition (2017, 2018), and the first and second prizes of the National Digital Education Application Innovation Competition (2019); besides, 4 national innovation and entrepreneurship programme projects for university students have been approved.

Overall, students in the college have diverse development paths after graduation, and the average annual employment rate of graduates exceeds 90%. On one hand, each year approximately 30% of the graduates gain admission to prestigious universities both domestically and internationally, including Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University, Renmin University of China, University College London, and the University of Queensland. On the other hand, the majority of our distinguished graduates secure positions in various sectors: they are employed by educational departments at all levels of government, higher education institutions, key primary and secondary schools across different cities, public kindergartens and other institutions; they also find roles in well-known enterprises such as New Oriental and ByteDance.