Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University (GPNU) is a provincial general university with Master’s Degree granting authority.Its predecessor was Guangdong Institute for Nationalities, founded in 1957, and renamed in 2002. Guangdong Mechanical School, Guangdong Economic Management College and Guangdong Financial and Trade Management College merged successively into GPNU. In 2006, the university was nominated as a Master’s Degree granting unit.GPNU sponsors Tianhe College of Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University which is an independent privately-run full-time secondary college. GPNU began to enroll undergraduates in 1977 and post-graduates in 2006 and overseas students in 2000. The university has established good cooperative relations with colleges and universities from USA, UK, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, and other countries or regions.

     There are 13843 full-time students and 1332 staff members of whom 864 make up the teaching and research staff. Among the teaching staff, 112 are professors, 250 are associate professors, and 554 with doctor and master degrees. Dozens of them were granted as national model teachers or national excellent teachers. During the past 3 years, we have undertaken 256 research projects and won more than 100 prizes at national, provincial, ministerial or municipal levels, and published 68 Academic Monographs, 91 textbooks and 2505 academic papers.

     There are 14 secondary schools in this university, such as schools of Electronic and Information, Management, Computer Science, Educational Technology and Communications, Education, Accounting, Fine Arts,Nationalities, Chinese Language and Literature, Foreign Language, Economics & Trade, Mechanical Engineering, Automation, Politics and Law. Besides, the university has 3 teaching departments: Social Science, College English and Physical Education and one provincial model software institute. There are 63 undergraduate subjects, 44 subjects for 3-year-term college students. All these subjects cover engineering, science, literature, management, education, economics and law. The university now enrolls students mainly from Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Henan, Jiangxi, Hunan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Xinjiang and other provinces. The university has four master’s degree granting units at the present.

     Orientation of GPNU is “facing, serving and leading vocational education”. The main mission of this university is to train qualified teachers for all kinds of vocational schools in Guangdong province. The university has been chosen as the “National College Students’ Culture and Quality Teaching Base”, “NationalVocational Education Teachers Training Key Construction Base”, "National Training Institution for Shortage of Skilled Personnel ", “Skilled Personnel Training Base in Guangdong Province ", " Principal Training Center in Guangdong Provinces", " Base for Further Study of Primary and Secondary School Teachers in Guangdong Province ", and so on.

     There is an Industrial Training Centre, provincial key Virtual Electrical Engineering Exercise Laboratory，provincial "Integration of Optical and Electrical Machinery" Researching Laboratory and one Higher Vocational Technology and Digital Education Teaching Resource Centre. The total value of teaching and research equipment or devices is worth about RMB 100 million. The library has a collection of over 2,400,000 books, 2000 different Chinese or foreign languages newspapers and periodicals, possessing a favorable condition for education. There are Institutes of Higher Education and Vocational Education, Ethnic Studies, and many other scientific research institutions.

     The development targets of GPNU are to protrude our characteristics on vocational education and strive to be in the lead among those domestic similar universities by taking advantages of the master and bachelor degree granting authority and the coordination and development between vocational education teaching and multi-disciplines, taking Guangdong Industry Training Center, Teachers' Training Center and the Research Center of Higher Education and Vocational Education as bases, having certain international influence in vocational education and develop this university into a multi-disciplinary, multi-level coordinated, and comprehensive university.