South China Normal University (SCNU) is a member of Project 211 (one of the top 100 universities in China in the 21st century). It's a comprehensive university featured distinctively by both teaching and research, consisting of diverse branches of learning such as philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, technology, and management.

As early as 1933, the Teachers' College of Guangdong Provincial Xiangqin University, the predecessor of SCNU, was established by Mr. Lin Liru, a contemporary educationist, serving as the vice Minister of Education(MOE) and then the president of Beijing Normal University for several terms after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It was later developed as an independent Guangdong Provincial College of Liberal Arts and Science, together with National Zhongshan (Sun Yat Sen) University, which were the two most prestigious universities in Guangdong province at that time. In 1951, South China Normal College was founded with the merging of the Teachers' College of Zhongshan University and the Education Department of the South China United University . In 1952, the Education Department of Lingnan University, the Russian department of Nanfang University , and several universities in central and southern China were also merged into the college in the readjustment of the universities in the whole country. Famous educationalists like Du Guoxiang, Chen Weishi, Wang Yanshi and Ma Xiaoyun served as the deans. In 1978, the college was approved as a key provincial college in Guangdong . In October 1982, South China Normal College formally changed its name to South China Normal University . In October, 1996, SCNU was approved as a member of "Project 211".

For over 70 years, the university changed its names and locations for several times, yet its good tradition was well kept and passed down from generation to generation. Many famous educationists and professors had once worked at SCNU. Some of them are Luo Jun, Wang Deliang( famous educationists), Kang Baiqing(a pioneer in the writing of new verses in the May Fourth Movement), Ruan Jingqing( psychologist), Ye Peihua, Zhu Bo(educationists), Ye Shumu(mathematician), Huang Youmou, and Liu Songhao (physicists). The Teachers' College of Xiangqin University has taken "Conduct profound research, Cultivate specialists for the society as its good tradition, together with the revolutionary spirits of Nanfang University "Loyalty, Unity, Seek Truth from Facts combined with the motto of SCNU Live a simple life , Conduct a rigorous study, Seek truth , Be innovative, Be a role model . The university spirits and the good traditions have inspired our graduates generation after generation, leading to the prosperity and development of SCNU. SCNU underwent unprecedented fast developments, especially after China 's opening up to the outside world and its reforms in the 1980s.