闽南师范大学是福建省重点建设高校、省一流大学建设高校、国家一流专业建设高校、博士学位授予单位。学校现设18个二级学院，全日制在校本科生、研究生2.1万余人；设有68个本科专业，1个一级学科博士点、1个服务国家特殊需求博士人才培养项目、7个一级学科硕士点、12个专业学位硕士点，涵盖11个学科门类。学校是福建省政府奖学金留学生培养院校、“国际中文教师奖学金”留学生培养院校、教育部国家语言文字推广基地、福建省海外华文教育基地，同时配套设有优秀硕博士留学生专项奖学金。学校经国家教育部批准，面向全球招收来华留学生。
为适应现代教育发展和学校国际化办学需要，进一步发挥地处闽南开放城市的办学区位优势，经福建省教育厅批准，闽南师范大学于2009年成立了专门负责国际交流合作、留学生教育及境外合作办学等工作的海外教育学院。2011年，学校外事办公室和台港澳事务办公室职能从党委（校长）办公室分离出来，与海外教育学院合署办公。目前，海外教育学院下设外事科、综合科、留学生管理科等科室。成立以来，海外教育学院先后推动学校与欧美、澳新、日韩、东南亚各国和台港澳地区的80余所高校建立了姐妹校关系，开展稳定的友好合作，如美国路易斯安那理工大学、西东大学，英国萨塞克斯大学、普利茅斯大学，澳大利亚堪培拉大学、纽卡斯尔大学，新西兰奥克兰大学，意大利卡托利卡大学，德国BSK教育集团，日本岛根大学，泰国清迈大学，菲律宾国立马科斯大学等。
学院充分利用区位和资源优势，发挥学校办学特色，大力吸引、招收和培养国际学生，至今已招收来自美国、俄罗斯、韩国、土耳其、马来西亚、喀麦隆、冈比亚、加纳等40多个国家的300余名留学生来校修读汉语非学历课程和本、硕、博学历专业，留学生学历教育涵盖文学、经济学、数学、化学、教育学、心理学、法学、工学等8个学科门类。学院着力推进海外华文教育，争取中国驻菲律宾大使馆在我校设立了“菲籍华文教师培养专项奖学金”，推动学校在东南亚国家设立了4个华文教育中心和实习实践基地，为东南亚国家华文学校教师开展职业能力培训，每年举办国际学生、海外华裔及港澳台青少年寻根夏令营、中华文化体验、游学培训等活动，至今已为近1000余名海外学生提供了短期汉语学习和中华文化体验平台。
学院大力推进中外合作办学，与澳大利亚教育管理集团、中教未来国际教育集团、国家留学基金委等建立战略合作关系，是“中美人才培养计划”、“中外高水平大学学生交流计划”、“本科学术互认课程（ISEC）项目”的中方成员单位，与英国萨塞克斯大学、澳大利亚堪培拉大学联办双学位项目，与全球30余所大学定期开展交换生、国际课程、国际职教、留学专班、硕士预科等项目，为本校和国内学生提供赴海外留学的新渠道。学院充分发挥对台地域优势，积极推进闽南文化与两岸交流研究，同时具备联合招收港澳台侨本、硕、博学生资格和免试招收台湾地区学测生、统测生资格，与台湾地区30余所高校保持良好稳定的校际交流合作，2011年至今连续举办闽台高校联合培养人才项目，选送1500多名大陆学生赴台交流学习。
Approved by the Education Department of Fujian Province, the Overseas Education College (OEC) of Minnan Normal University was founded in 2009, in order to further adapt to modern educational development and internationalization, and to take full regional advantage of being in the open coastal city of Zhangzhou. The college is set to be responsible for MNNU’s international exchange and cooperation, international student admission and education, and overseas joint programs. In 2011, the functions of the International Affairs Office and the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office were separated from the General Office of the University and merged into OEC. Currently, OEC consists of 3 sections, namely Section of International Affairs, Section of Comprehensive Administration and Section of International Student Affairs Management. Since its foundation, OEC has promoted the establishment of partnership between MNNU and more than 80 universities in different countries, e.g. the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, etc. and China’s Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao regions. It has also conducted stable, friendly and cooperative ties with counterparts such as Louisiana Tech University, Pennsylvania State University, Seton Hall University and New York Institute of Technology of the USA, Plymouth University of the UK, Newcastle University andDeakinUniversityof Australia, Auckland University of New Zealand, BSK International Education Organization of German, Shimane University and Nara Saho College of Japan, Chiang Mai University of Thailand, Mariana Marcos State University of the Philippines.
OEC devotes itself to make full use of the university's advantages in location, resources and education features to recruit and cultivate international students. Up to now, nearly 300 students from more than 40 countries such as the United States, Russia, Korea, Turkey, Malaysia, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana have been enrolled in its Chinese language program (non-degree), undergraduate programs, postgraduate programs and doctoral programs. Academic education for international students covers 8 disciplines which are Literature, Economics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Pedagogy, Psychology, Law and Engineering. In the meanwhile, OEC has provided platforms of short-term Chinese language learning and Chinese culture experience for nearly 1000 overseas students. And over the past decade, it has held consecutively Fujian-Taiwan joint talent training programs and sent more than 1500 students from mainland to study in Taiwan. OEC has been striving to work on the solid implementation of Sino-foreign cooperative education institutions and projects, and has established strategic and cooperative partnerships with Australia Education Management Group, China Prospect Education Group and China Scholarship Council to promote international cooperation projects. In addition, OEC also hosts a special class for sending students to study in Japan, and carries out "1 + 1 Overseas Education Background Enhancement Project", "1 + 1 International Master Preparatory Project", "2 + X International Undergraduate Project" and "International Vocational Education -Undergraduate Project", in order to provide more opportunities for students of MNNU as well as more domestic students to study abroad.
(Updated as of May, 2023)