Wed, August 06, 2008
Peking University is a comprehensive and National key university. The campus, known as "Yan Yuan"-- the gardens of Yan, is situated at the northeast of the Haidian District at the western suburbs of Beijing. It stands near the Yuanmingyuan Gardens and the Summer Palace and covers an area of 2,707,853 sq. m.
Founded in 1898, Peking University, whose former name was Jingshi Daxue Tang (the Metropolitan University), is the first state-run comprehensive university in China and the highest educational administrative body of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
In 1917, Mr. Cai Yuanpei, an outstanding educationist and democratic revolutionary, took up presidency of the university. He played an active role in the reform and development of the university. By 1919, the university had developed into the largest institution of higher learning in the country, with 14 departments and an enrollment of more than 2,000 students. Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong, founders of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as Lu Xun, a great writer, thinker and chief leader of the Chinese New-Culture Movement, all either taught or took up an appointment in the university.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Peking University became a university comprising departments of both liberal arts and sciences with an emphasis on the teaching and research of basic sciences.
The University now consists of 30 colleges and 12 departments, with 93 specialties for undergraduates, 2 specialties for the second Bachelor's degree, 199 specialties for Master candidates and 173 specialties for Doctoral candidates. While still laying stress on basic sciences, the university has paid special attention to the development of applied sciences.
At present, Peking University has 216 research institutes and research centers, and there are 2 national engineering research centers, 81 key national disciplines, 12 national key laboratories.
The university has made an effective combination of the research on important scientific issues with the training of personnel with high level specialized knowledge and professional skill as demanded by the country's socialist modernization. It strives not only for the simultaneous improvements in teaching and research work, but also for the promotion of interaction and mutual promotion among various subjects.
Thus Peking University has become a center for teaching and research and a university of the new type, consisting of diverse branches of learning such as pure and applied sciences, social sciences and the humanities, and sciences of management and education. Its aim is to rank among the world’s best universities at the beginning of the next century.
