Beijing City University (BCU) was founded in 1984. It was the first non-governmental university in the People's Republic of China officially recognized for its academic credentials and was among the first group of non-governmental institutions to offer undergraduate programs and graduate education.
BCU remains steadfast in its original mission of nurturing talent for the Party and the nation, adheres to the public welfare purpose of running schools for the people and relying on the people to develop education, and upholds the educational philosophy of "appropriate, holistic, effective, and practical education". It fully implements the Party's educational guidelines and is dedicated to fulfilling the fundamental task of cultivating virtue through education, while comprehensively promoting high-quality development. BCU is committed to addressing the "urgent" and "essential" needs of urban development, maintaining its distinctive features as an applied, urban, and open institution. Adhering to a market-oriented approach and integrating closely with the city and industry, it has pioneered a new path for the development of non-governmental higher education with Chinese characteristics. BCU is recognized as a model of non-governmental education in China and a leading standard bearer in higher education reform.
Through its arduous pioneering and unremitting endeavor, BCU has developed into a comprehensive university with over 100 specialties under the disciplines of Science, Engineering, Arts, Law, Finance, Economics, Fine Arts, Foreign Languages, Management, Pharmaceutical Science among others, with over 20,000 full-time students and 2,000 teaching and administrative staff members. The university library has a collection of over 2 million books. BCU boasts more than 100 laboratories and training centers, well-furnished student dormitories in an advanced, high-speed campus network.
BCU boasts an outstanding faculty team primarily composed of full-time teachers, complemented by a mix of full-time and part-time educators. The core of the full-time teaching staff consists of doctors, professors and associate professors with academic backgrounds from prestigious universities both in China and abroad, with a significant emphasis on "dual-qualified" talents. Among them are dozens of national and municipal-level experts, renowned instructors, and distinguished young leading teachers. Additionally, BCU has attracted a group of foreign teachers from around the world, proficient in languages such as English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. The part-time faculty is made up of excellent teachers from well-known universities and research institutions, as well as engineers, entrepreneurs, and technical experts from various industries and sectors. This diverse blend of educational and professional expertise brings a distinctive character and reliable quality to the school's teaching and learning environment.
BCU places a high value on practical scientific research and social services. It has established multiple research institutes and bases at both the university and municipal levels, focusing on areas such as social development, urban management, urban economics, educational advancement, and 3D printing technology. In many of these fields, BCU is a leader among similar institutions nationwide. The faculty's publications and research achievements have regularly won national and provincial awards. BCU actively engages with the community by providing community education, vocational training, management consulting, technology transfer, and volunteer services. Through these activities, it is dedicated to spreading advanced culture and making valuable contributions to society.
BCU places a strong emphasis on broadening the international horizons of both its faculty and students. It has established inter-university partnerships with over 50 overseas institutions. Each year, it sends teachers and students from various disciplines abroad for exchange and study through a range of cooperative programs, while also inviting professors from partner institutions to give lectures on campus. Since 2013, BCU has collaborated with the University of Warwick in the UK, one of the world's top 100 universities, to jointly offer a postgraduate program in Programme and Project Management. In 2015, BCU established a Confucius Institute with a focus on Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Marino, Europe. In 2021, it partnered with the University of Guadalajara, the second-ranked university in Mexico, to establish a business-oriented Confucius Institute in the country's second-largest city. Every year, the school offers fully foreign language-taught courses with unique institutional characteristics for international students.
BCU endeavors to cultivate a large number of application-oriented talents in the process of urbanization and to nurture a group of high-quality elites in the fields of urban management, urban construction, urban economy, urban culture, and urban services. BCU attaches importance to market demand in setting specialties, to training students’ practical abilities, to the active role of environment in education, and to the role of culture in shaping students’ personalities. BCU has achieved high-quality employment of its graduates by high-quality education. Its graduates are recognized by employers for their good adaptability, strong practical capabilities, and high comprehensive quality. A large group of its graduates have grown into important figures in their industries.
