Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...

located in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China as part of Class A Double First Class University in the Double First Class University Plan and was designated by the

Chinese Ministry of Education The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China is a cabinet-level department under the State Council responsible for basic education, vocational education, higher education, and other educational affairs across the country. The ...

as a member of Project 985 and Project 211. " Normal school" refers to an institution that trained schoolteachers in the early 20th century. The title is preserved in the names of Chinese institutions after they developed into comprehensive universities. It also reflects BNU's heritage as a Faculty of Education member of the Imperial University of Peking which was established as China's first modern university. BNU ranked first among universities that originated as “ normal schools”. The Faculty of Education is considered the best in China according to several widely cited international rankings, including the

QS Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for the ...

, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and the U.S. News Rankings, and the URAP ranking. BNU is ranked 36th among the Global Top 100 Innovative Universities according to the World's Universities with Real Impacts (WURI) Ranking 2021.

History

The university grew out of the Faculty of Education at the Imperial University of Peking by the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

after the Hundred Days' Reform in 1898. In 1908 the Faculty of Education was named the "Imperial Capital School of Supreme Teacher Training" and separated from the Imperial University of Peking which subsequently became Peking University. In 1912, after the Republic of China was established, the Imperial Capital School of Supreme Teacher Training was renamed Peking Normal College. The college established its first graduate programs in 1920 and began accepting female students in 1921. In 1923 it was renamed Peking Normal University and became the first normal university in modern Chinese history. The Peking Women's College of Education merged into Peking Normal University in 1931. When the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

established the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

in 1949 the capital of Peking was renamed, via pinyin, as Beijing and the university was consequently renamed Beijing Normal University. During a national initiative of university rearrangement in 1952 Fu Jen Catholic University merged with Beijing Normal University. In 1954 BNU moved from its Hepingmen campus to the newly established campus at Beitaipingzhuang. In 1959, BNU was designated by the Ministry of Education as one of 20

national key universities National Key Universities () previously referred to universities recognized as prestigious and which received a high level of support from the central government of the People's Republic of China. The term is no longer in official use by 1990s. Th ...

of China. Historically, students at Beijing Normal University have played major roles in patriotic, democratic and other social movements, including the

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the Chin ...

in 1919, and other significant cultural and sociopolitical events. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described it as "one of the most progressive institutions" in China. During the Cultural Revolution Beijing Normal University students made up the majority of Red Guards, a

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

movement that killed thousands of people and attempted to destroy what they saw as "outdated" and "backwards" artifacts and cultural institutions.

Present

Beijing Normal University was selected to be a Project 211 institution in 1996. In 2002, BNU signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Beijing municipal government to become the 10th university participating in Project 985, through which it receives special support from the Chinese government aimed at elevating its reputation to the level of a "world-class" university. During its centennial celebration in 2002 an asteroid discovered in 1996 was named after the university as 8050 Beishida. After a special visit by Premier Wen Jiabao to the university on May 4, 2006, the Chinese government implemented a tuition-waiver policy for teacher training programs in six normal universities that are supervised by the Ministry of Education, including Beijing Normal University. The university has a strong emphasis on increasing educational equity. Its 2009 demographic data shows that 40% of its enrolled students were from western China, one third were from rural areas and a quarter were from low-income families. Ethnic minorities comprised more than 10% of students.

Academics

As of the year 2020, the university has 74 undergraduate degree programs, 185 master programs and 142 doctoral programs. Sixteen of them are honored as "national key disciplines", including 5 general disciplines and 11 specialized disciplines, which are recognized among the top ranked programs in China: Beijing Normal University possesses 74 research laboratories, including 4 National Key Labs, 7 Key Labs of the Ministry of Education and 5 Key Labs of the Beijing Municipality. Key research centers and facilities include 7 key research facilities in humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, 2 research centers of Engineering and Technology of the Beijing Municipality, 3 research centers jointly established with the Beijing Municipality, and more than 40 other research centers. Additionally, the university has an institute dedicated to Proteomics, the only one established in a university by the Ministry of Education. The university has also established a Science Park comprising 6 hectares. Beijing Normal University's annual research budget in the sciences exceeds RMB 100 million. In 2010, 150 projects were funded by the National Natural Science Foundation, with a record high amount of RMB 62 million (compared with 44.7 million in 2009 and 37 million in 2007). Funding for research in the humanities and social sciences has increased rapidly in the last five years to RMB 150 million, the third largest budget nationally. Since 2002, the annual increase in budget has been over RMB 30 million, equating to RMB 40,000 per capita. This increase in funding reflects BNU's institutional commitment to basic theory and research in the humanities and social sciences.

International Collaboration

Beijing Normal University is part of a university consortium, including the

University for Continuing Education Krems The University for Continuing Education Krems () is an Austrian university specializing in further education for working professionals. It is located in Krems an der Donau, Lower Austria. Name The Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Re ...

, Eötvös Loránd University, Hochschule Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology and the University of Tampere, which offers an

Erasmus+ Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' was a s ...

joint master's degree and a Master in Research and Innovation in Higher Education. Beijing Normal University was among the first Chinese institutions to accept international students. It is particularly popular for its Mandarin Chinese study programs. Among its most prestigious programs is ''Princeton in Beijing'', a collaboration with

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in the United States. The university collaborates with the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) on SUSS's Master of Arts in Chinese Language and Literature. Beijing Normal University is the seat of the BRICS Universities League Secretariat with BNU as a leading university in terms of

BRICS BRICS is an acronym for five leading emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The first four were initially grouped as "BRIC" (or "the BRICs") in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, who coined the te ...

higher education and academic cooperation.

Rankings and reputation

BNU ranked No.1 in China among universities that originated as “ normal schools”. The Faculty of Education is considered the best in China according to several widely cited international rankings, including the

QS World University Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for th ...

, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Ranking, and the University Ranking by Academic Performance. In 2022, BNU was ranked 19th globally by the ''Times Higher Education Rankings by Subjects'',' and 28th by the ''QS World University Rankings by Subjects'', for "Education and Training", which are historical strengths for the Faculty of Education that originated as a " normal university". BNU is ranked 36th among the Global Top 100 Innovative Universities according to the World's Universities with Real Impacts (WURI) Ranking 2021. According to the 2021

, BNU was ranked among the top 170 in "Arts and Humanities", "Social Sciences & Management" and "Natural Science" related subjects. Beijing Normal University consistently features in the top 300th global universities as ranked by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the

, the

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarel ...

and the U.S. News & World Report. Beijing Normal graduates are highly desired in China and worldwde; in 2017, its graduate employability rankings placed in the global top #200+ universities with high-achieving graduates. Internationally, Beijing Normal University was regarded as one of the most reputable Chinese universities by the '' Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings'' where, it has ranked #126 globally. *

QS World University Ranking ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for th ...

: 262nd, 12th in China * Academic Ranking of World Universities : 201-300th, 7th-12th in China *

: 251-300th, 11th in China

Schools and Departments

*Faculty of Education *School of Chinese Language and Literature *School of Law *School of Economy and Business Administration *School of Foreign Language and Culture *School of Life Science *School of Chemistry *School of Resources *School of Geography *Department of Astronomy *School of Mathematics *School of History *School of Philosophy *Department of Physics *School of Systems Science *School of Psychology *School of Social Development and Public Policy *School of Arts and Mass Media *School of Environment *School of Sociology Beijing Normal University also has many other areas of study not mentioned above.

Campus

The main campus is in the Haidian District, with other Beijing campuses in the

Changping District Changping District (), formerly Changping County (), is a district situated in the suburbs of north and northwest Beijing. History Changping County and Jundu County which administered the area were established in the Han Dynasty. Changping was i ...

and Xicheng District as well as a campus in

Zhuhai Zhuhai (, ; Yale: ''Jyūhói''), also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, on the southeastern edge of P ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

. The original campus was near Hepingmen and Liulichang in the center of Beijing during the Republic of China period. After

Fu Jen University Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU, FJCU or Fu Jen; or ) is a private Catholic university in Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1925 in Beijing at the request of Pope Pius XI and re-established in Taiwan in 1961 a ...

merged with BNU the Fu Jen campus in Shichahai became the Northern Campus of BNU. Beijing Normal University's current campus was built in 1954. It is located in central northwest Beijing in Haidian district between the second and third ring roads. It is the closest of all Haidian universities to

Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananm ...

. Its campus hosted the U.S. Olympic Team during the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Notable alumni

* Mo Yan, writer, 2012

Nobel Literature Prize ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

laureate * Liu Xiaobo, writer and dissident, 2010

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

laureate * Su Tong, novelist * Cao Shui, poet, novelist and screenwriter *

Xie Jun Xie Jun (born October 30, 1970) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and is not just the first Chinese female but the first Asian female to become a chess grandmaster. She had two separate reigns as Women's World Chess Champion, from 1991 to 1996 ...

, chess grandmaster * Zhu Jin, astronomer * Lang Ping, gold medalist in

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...

women's volleyball, and former head coach of the U.S. women's national volleyball team * Dao Youhe, well-known specialist in Chinese education * Chen Yibing, gymnast, 2008 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics gold medalist *

Xu Jialu Xu Jialu (; born 1937) was a vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and was head of the College of Chinese Language and Culture at Beijing Normal University. Life Xu was born in Beijing, though his ancestral hom ...

, professor of Chinese, politician, and former vice chairman of the National People's Congress * Yuan Guiren, professor of philosophy, and the former Minister of Education of the People's Republic of China * Sun Siwei, well-known specialist in Chinese education * Yu Dan, professor well known for her popular and controversial lectures about the Analects broadcast on China Central Television * Ye Ding, psychologist * Weidong Li, professor of astronomy, the first Chinese astronomer to discover a supernovae since 1054 A.D. * Min Weifang, former CPC Secretary of Peking University, serving from 2002 to 2011. He is a graduate of the Education Department, subsequently earning his Ph.D. from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

in the United States *

Wang Dezhao Wang Dezhao or Ouang Te-Tchao (; December 20, 1905 – December 28, 1998) was a Chinese physicist who was known for his research in atmospheric electricity and underwater acoustics. Under the direction of Paul Langevin, he helped the French impro ...

or Ouang Te Tchao, prominent Chinese physicist, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, student of French physicist Paul Langevin and founder of underwater acoustics in China, Officier of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour. * Wang Xiaodong, elected member of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the N ...

, former biochemist at the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a Public university, public Academic health science centre, academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 18,800 employees, more than 2,900 ful ...

, and currently Director and Investigator at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing (NIBS, Beijing) * Liang Jun, teacher and women's rights activist *

Timothy Geithner Timothy Franz Geithner (; born August 18, 1961) is a former American central banker who served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank ...

, 75th

United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

. He attended as a language student studying Mandarin in 1982 as an undergraduate at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

. * Kirsten Gillibrand, United States Senator from New York. She attended as an undergraduate in

's FSP program.

Affiliated high schools

* Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University * The High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University * The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University

References

External links

BNU Official Site

MDJS BBS @BNU (, telnet, ssh)BNU Student Forum
{{authority control Teachers colleges in China Universities and colleges in Beijing Universities and colleges in Haidian District Universities and colleges in Guangdong Project 211 Project 985 Plan 111 Educational institutions established in 1902 1902 establishments in China Zhuhai Vice-ministerial universities in China