The Aberdeen Institute is a non-legal-entity Sino-foreign joint institute established by South China Normal University and the University of Aberdeen. In May 2021, the Ministry of Education officially approved the establishment of Aberdeen Institute, which is a teaching and research unit at SCNU. It marks the launch of the first Sino-foreign joint institute offering undergraduate program in artificial intelligence in China, the first Sino-foreign joint institute at SCNU, also the first of its kind in Foshan City. The Aberdeen Institute enrolled the first intake of 185 students in 2021, offering three four-year undergraduate programs, namely, artificial intelligence, software engineering, and information management & information systems. The total capacity is expected to reach 1,200 students in the future. It adopts the training mode of "4+0" "dual registration" "double degree" .