About PKU

Founded in 1898, Peking University was originally known as the Imperial University of Peking and renamed Peking University in 1911. Its establishment signified the beginning of China’s modern higher education. The University has preserved its fine traditions of “patriotism, progress, democracy, and science” and academic virtues of “diligence, rigor, truth, and innovation”.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Peking University has developed into a comprehensive university with fundamental education and research in both humanities and science. The reform and opening-up of China in 1978 has ushered in a new era for the University unseen in history. And its merger with Beijing Medical University in 2000 has geared itself up for all-round and vibrant growth in such fields as science, engineering, medicine, agriculture, humanities and social sciences.

Peking University now has six faculties, namely Humanities, Social Sciences, Economics and Management, Science, Information Technology and Engineering, and Health Science. It consists of 55 schools and departments, 60 research entities, and ten affiliated hospitals. There are more than 48,600 students (including nearly 2,500 international students) as well as over 12,600 faculty and staff members including over 123 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as well as many great figures in Chinese humanities and social sciences.

Peking University cultivates students for and around the world and fosters talents that lead the world to the future. With undergraduate education as its cornerstone, it integrates general and professional education, cultivates top-notch students of basic and cross-disciplinary disciplines, and creates a general education system that covers the entire undergraduate education. It establishes a postgraduate education system for developing first-rate leaders, explores various approaches for educating excellent postgraduate students, and equips them with cross-disciplinary knowledge and capabilities.

Peking University stands at the forefront of global academic research and develops cross-disciplinary research towards the greater goal of building a human community with a shared future. It advances regional and country-specific studies to serve the Belt and Road Initiative and explores new academic research modes that offer China’s insight into the world. It is furthering the project of Clinical Medicine + X, planning the research in core carbon-neutral science and technology, bolstering the project of Digital Intelligence+ to empower traditional disciplines with digital intelligence as well as to boost emerging fields such as digital humanities.

Peking University is an important center for international talents and a key bridge for international exchange. Since 1998, Peking University has received more than 110 heads of state and government, and invited nearly 40 Nobel laureates and hundreds of academicians as well as winners of world-renowned awards to give lectures and exchange with faculty and students. Thousands of international distinguished scholars and excellent young talents on a yearly basis have visited and collaborated closely with the University in high-level international conferences, joint research and cultivation programs, and co-authored publications, etc. In May 2019, it released a document entitled “International Development Strategy of Peking University: In Pursuit of Global Excellence”. With a vision of innovation, openness, distinction and diversity and emphasis on leading and shaping cooperation, the University has advanced collaborated scientific research globally, cultivated world-class talents, created a global academic community, established unique paradigms for international exchange, and evolved into an international intellectual pinnacle.

We welcome international scholars of different countries and cultures to “Yan Yuan” (the campus of Peking University). Let us work together for academic excellence, talent cultivation and building an international community with a shared future.