Notice on Selection for the 2026 Chengdu Government Scholarship for International Students — Office of International Cooperation and Exchange

About the university

Southwest Petroleum University (SWPU), located in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, is a public university established by the People's Government of Sichuan Province. It is jointly built by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and the Sichuan Provincial People's Government, as well as jointly built by the Sichuan Provincial People's Government, China National Petroleum Corporation, China Petrochemical Corporation, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation. The university is listed as a national "Double First-Class" construction university and has been selected for the national "111 Project," the "Characteristic Key Discipline Project," the National High-Level University Graduate Program, and the National Innovation Talent Training Demonstration Base. It is a multidisciplinary comprehensive university with a focus on engineering, coordinated development of liberal arts, science, and engineering disciplines, and has advantages and characteristics in the fields of clean energy and new materials. It serves as an important base for talent cultivation and scientific research in the national energy industry. The predecessor of Southwest Petroleum University was the Sichuan Petroleum Institute, founded in 1958 and affiliated with the former Ministry of Petroleum Industry. It was renamed Southwest Petroleum Institute in 1970. In 2004, the former Sichuan Provincial Institute of Political Science and Law Management was merged into the university. It was renamed Southwest Petroleum University in 2005 and was selected as one of the first batch of national "Double First-Class" construction universities in 2017. As of March 2026, the university has two campuses in Chengdu and Nanchong, covering a total area of over 3,000 mu. It has 15 colleges, 74 undergraduate programs, 5 postdoctoral research stations, 7 first-level doctoral degree authorization points, 1 professional doctoral degree authorization category, 37 second-level doctoral degree authorization points, 8 interdisciplinary doctoral degree authorization points, 24 first-level master's degree authorization points, 1 interdisciplinary master's degree authorization point, 15 professional master's degree authorization categories, 32 professional master's degree authorization fields, 2,813 faculty and staff members, and 42,350 enrolled students, including 31,665 regular undergraduates, 9,051 full-time master's students, and 1,125 doctoral students. As of August 2025, the library holds 2.44 million paper documents and 58 electronic resource databases. In the mid-to-late 1950s, China's petroleum industry was far from meeting the country's construction needs, drawing high attention from the Party and the state. Chairman Mao Zedong personally inspected the Longchang Gas Mine and gave important instructions, and then-General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Deng Xiaoping personally deployed the exploration and development of the Sichuan oil and gas fields. In 1958, then-Minister of the Petroleum Industry Yu Qiuli commanded the central Sichuan oil campaign from Nanchong. To meet the urgent needs of the petroleum industry's development and cultivate scientific and technological talents urgently needed for oil and gas exploration and development, the State Council approved the request of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry and the Ministry of Education to establish a new petroleum university, the second petroleum university in New China—the Sichuan Petroleum Institute, located in Nanchong, the center of the central Sichuan oil campaign. The state transferred teachers, students, and staff from Beijing Petroleum Institute, Tsinghua University, and the Ministry of Petroleum Industry to Nanchong to establish the Sichuan Petroleum Institute, using military barracks as temporary school buildings, initiating a model of "enrolling students before building the campus." On September 30, the Sichuan Provincial People's Committee officially approved the establishment of the Sichuan Petroleum Institute; on November 1, the first opening ceremony was held in the military barracks at Nanchong Airport. In February 1963, the Ministry of Petroleum decided to dissolve the Central South Petroleum Institute, and 102 students from the 1960 and 1961 cohorts majoring in petroleum geology and petroleum drilling were transferred to the school. In June 1970, in accordance with the notice of the CPC Central Committee on the decentralization of higher education institutions, with the approval of the State Council's Business Group, the Sichuan Petroleum Institute was renamed the Southwest Petroleum Institute and was placed under the leadership of the Sichuan Provincial Revolutionary Committee from July 1970. In June 1981, with the approval of the Ministry of Petroleum and registration with the Sichuan Province, the "Journal of Southwest Petroleum Institute" was officially published. In November, with the approval of the State Council, the university became one of the first batch of master's degree-granting units in the country. The first issue of the internal publication "Teaching Research" was published.