Northwest A&F University
Northwest A&F University is a national public university located in Yangling District, Xianyang, Shaanxi, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.
History
The State Council agreed to merge 7 organizations as new Northwest A&F University in a reply to the proposal drafted by Ministry of Education and Shaanxi Province Government. A financial budget of 600,000,000 RMB was granted as start fund and further investment plan as well as related issue such as reshuffle were also briefly stated in this official reply. On 11 September 1999, a central government delegation led by Vice Premier Li Lanqing attended the opening ceremony and made the announcement.List of presidents
President
- September 1999 – August 2003 Mr. Chen, Zongxing
- August 2003 – January 2011 Professor. Sun, Wuxue
- January 2011 – July 2017 Professor Sun, Qixin
- December 2017 - present Professor Wu, Pute
Communist Party Committee Secretary of A&F
- September 1999 – August 2003 Professor Sun, Wuxue
- August 2003 – May 2013 Professor. Zhang, Guangqiang
- May 2013 – August 2015 Dr. Liang, Gui
- August 2015 – present Mr. Li, Xingwang
Rankings and reputation
NWAFU is a member of "Project 985" club which is an organization of 39 reputable universities in China.In 2017, Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked the university within the 801-1000 band globally.
The overall global ranking of NWAFU by the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Rankings 2025 is 288.
In 2025, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranked the university at 201-300 globally.
Regarding scientific research output, the 2025 Nature Index Research Leaders placed NWAFU 230th in the world among leading academic institutions.
Subject Rankings
The university ranks as Top 3 research and teaching quality in China's agriculture universities.Northwest A&F University's research achievements are dominant in the fields of agriculture biology including wheat breeding, entomology, agriculture resource management, horticulture, plant protection, food science, forestry and veterinary. Besides, the university is also reputable in agricultural water conservancy, agriculture economics and management, agriculture mechanics and information engineering and ancient agricultural history research.
In 2025, the "Agricultural Science" subject was ranked 3rd globally by the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).' Meanwhile, "Plant and Animal Science" was ranked 8th globally by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
| Subject Rankings in the World Top 50 | U.S. News & World Report 2025' | ARWU 2024 |
| Water Resources | 1 | 5 |
| Agricultural Sciences | 3 | 3 |
| Food Science & Technology | 9 | 8 |
| Veterinary Sciences | 12 | 8 |
| Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology | 13 | 27 |