Sichuan University is one of the earliest institutions of
higher education in China. Its earliest predecessor was the Sichuan Chinese and Western School (四川中西學堂), a school established in 1896 that combined traditional and modern methods of education. In 1902, it was merged with two
traditional Chinese academies, the Jinjiang Shuyuan (錦江書院, founded 1740) and the Zunjing Shuyuan (尊經書院, founded 1875), and became known as the Sichuan Higher School (四川高等学堂, later 四川高等学校). In 1916, after another merger with a normal school, it was renamed the National Chengdu Higher Normal School (國立成都高等師範學校). In the late 1920s, the institution was briefly divided into three universities, namely the National Chengdu University, the Chengdu Normal University and the Public Sichuan University. In 1931, however, they were reintegrated to form the National Sichuan University (國立四川大學). By 1949, the National Sichuan University had been developed into one of the largest multidisciplinary universities in China, with arts, science, engineering, agriculture, law, and normal schools and a total of 25 departments. After the foundation of the
PRC, the name was changed to Sichuan University. In the 1950s, the national "adjustment of colleges and departments" (院系调整) was organized, after which SCU specialized in arts and science. The schools of engineering and agriculture was mostly split off to form two new universities: the
Engineering Institute of Chengdu (成都工学院) and the
Sichuan Institute of Agriculture. The normal school was merged into
Southwest Normal University and
Sichuan Teachers College. The school of law became part of the
Southwest College of Political Science and Law. A number of departments in agriculture was transferred to the
Southwest Institute of Agriculture, while the department of aeronautics was affiliated under the
Beijing Institute of Aeronautics. Engineering Institute of Chengdu, established in 1954, specialized in
chemical engineering,
hydroelectricity,
mechanics,
textiles, and
light industry. In 1978, it was renamed to Chengdu University of Science and Technology (CUST). The
West China School of Medicine was originally founded as a private medical school, known as
West China Union College. It became a public university after the foundation of the PRC, being renamed to Sichuan Medical College in 1953 and
West China University of Medical Science (WCUMS) in 1985. It was established in 1910 by five Christian missionary groups from the U.S., UK and Canada, with offered courses in stomatology, biomedicine, basic medicine and clinical medicine. In 1994, the SCU, CUST and WCUMS merged to form the Sichuan Union University (四川联合大学). The university adopted the current name in 1998. Today, Sichuan University is the largest and most comprehensive university in
Western China. SCU grants
doctorates in twelve main disciplines and 111 subordinate disciplines. It also has six professional degree programs, and has 16 disciplines for
postdoctoral research. The 109
bachelor's degree programs SCU grants cover the main fields in
liberal arts,
sciences,
engineering,
medicine and
agriculture. Its current student population is more than 70,000. Sichuan University has been listed on the
Entity List of the
United States Department of Commerce's
Bureau of Industry and Security since 2012 due to the Sichuan University Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology's involvement in nuclear weapons development. ==Faculty==