Southwest Forestry University (SWFU)

China

Kunming, Yunnan

0871-3863101

zb@swfu.edu.cn

Southwest Forestry University (SWFU), located in ‘Spring City’ of Kunming, Yunnan province, as the only independent forestry university in southwest part of China, SWFU was initially founded as the Department of Forestry in Yunnan University in 1938 and was established from Department of Forestry on Kunming Agriculture and Forestry College in 1958. It became a member of University of National Excellent Engineer Training Program and the University of Excellent Agricultural and Forestry Talents Training Program. SWFU was accredited for conferring master’s degree in 1981 and was recognized to confer Doctor’s Degrees in 2013.

The university, covering an area of 180.2 hectares, is divided into Bailong, Shilin and Qiumuyuan campus and has 30 colleges which have enrolled approximately 20,000 full time students, 1,219 stuff members that include 470 of whom has a senior professional post.

The university hosts 3 academician stations, 17 provincial innovation groups, 17 post-doctor’s station of Forestry, Forestry Engineering, 24 scientific research platform and institutes, such as National-Provincial Joint Engineer Research Center of Forestry Biomass Resources Efficient Utilization, National Plateau Wetlands Research Center, Yunnan Biodiversity Research Academy, Green Development Research Academy, Rocky Desertification Research Institute etc. Three of its primary disciplines are authorized to offer Ph.Ds, 11 primary disciplines and 66 secondary disciplines offer master's degrees, five disciplines offer professional master's degrees, and 84 undergraduate programs.

SWFU has taken the strong responsibility to serve the society, making full use of advantages in the region, industry and forestry related disciplines, and integrating the education with industry development and scientific research. The university has kept to be highly ranked among equivalent universities in biodiversity, nature reserve conservation, silviculture, forest protection, researches on rattan and bamboo, wood science and technology, forest management, and plateau wetland research and conservation in China. SWFU has also strived to possess regional features in the fields of landscape architecture, environmental design, and ecotourism, and has been outstanding in the studies on ants, birds and fish. The University has achieved remarkable ecological, economic and social benefits by developing ecological civilization and forestry industries and by pushing forward the regional and local development of economy and society.

SWFU has paid great attention to international cooperation and exchange. Communication and exchange ties have been established with over 60 universities and research institutes in Asian, American, European and African countries and in Taiwan. Credit-transfer programs, various joint-education programs, short-term research programs and thesis or dissertation research practice for undergraduate students, master and doctoral candidates have been implemented with over 20 overseas universities and some universities in Taiwan. The major of Mechatronic Engineering co-established with South Ural State University, Russia was approved by Ministry of Education as Chinese-foreign Cooperation in Running Programs. SWFU has cooperatively run a Confucius Classroom with Askia Mohamed High School and a Confucius Institute with Bamako University of Literature and Humanity Sciences in Mali. Collaborative research programs have been completed or are being conducted with the Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF), Global Environmental Foundation, the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and many other international organizations.