Xihua University was established Saturday in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, to become a new, major higher learning institution in the southwestern part of the country.

The university was formed from two schools, the former Sichuan Institute of Industries and the Chengdu Normal College, now with 20,000 students and teachers and covering 200 hectares.

The Sichuan Institute of Industries was founded in 1960 to train students in the field of farm machinery.

In recent years, the Ministry of Education has been re-organizing and streamlining higher learning institutions across the country, in order to increase the competitiveness of Chinese universities and realize the country's goal of fostering more talented professionals.

(Source: People's Daily 2003-12-08)