The School of History & Culture of Sichuan University is nationally one of the leading schools in History and related subjects. As a branch of the School, World History has its own tradition and has been rapidly developing in recent years, thanks to its national promotion to the status of first grade subject of research and higher education. Currently the department of World History at Sichuan University, by national standards, provides a variety of graduate programmes on both the Master’s level and the doctorate level, and in all of its major subfields: Theories of History and Historiography, Ancient and Medieval History, Modern World History, Regional and National Histories, General or Specialized World History, and European Social and Cultural History.

World History characteristically promotes a World perspective towards History when describing the ebbs and flows of human developments from the past into the future. In this sense World History is concerned with the entire history from the birth of the first hominin to the ongoing phenomenon of globalization, though practically World History in China is mainly concerned with histories and cultures of countries, regions, and nations other than China itself. It is thus to be expected that, graduates with the skills and insights obtained through our programmes, enlightened with a World perspective, will qualify as experts in their specialized subfields of research. Since knowledge in World History can be essential as well for public service and business, our graduate programmes also try to accommodate other needs of professional training.

The department of World History currently has 18 full-time teaching members, 11 among them are full Professors, 4 associate Professors, and 3 lecturers. Though not large in its size, the team boasts a great width and depth of research coverage. More than 90 percent of the team members hold PhD degrees in their specialized topics from prominent Universities. In recent years, members of the team have been working as chief investigators of national or major provincial research projects and have been publishing high-quality research papers and monographs.

As a major research institution we can offer postgraduate programmes in a wide range of fields and applicants benefit from working with excellent scholars who are at the frontiers of their disciplines. Through taught classes, seminars, individual supervision, and greaduate thesis/dissertation, students are required to meet the national standards as set by the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Academic Degrees. PhD degree holders are expected to have developed their mature world views with professional expertises in their subjects of specialization, and are capable of creative research independently. PhD dissertations must be academically valuable and qualifying. MA degree holders should have in-depth knowledge of their topics of specialization, and must be able to conduct research independently or under guidance. MA theses must be academically qualifying. The Combined MA-PhD programme is designed for applicants who wish to pursue a continuous program of study leading to the master’s and doctoral degrees and who have a strong interest in and an exceptional capacity for research and scholarly work. Some of the graduates, PhD or MA degree holders from our graduate programmes have become key figures in their fields.