Located in Beijing,University ofChinese Academy of Scienceswasestablished with the approval of Ministry of Education ofthePeople’sRepublic ofChina (PRC).Its predecessor,Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences(GUCAS),wasthe first graduate school in China.UCAS granted the PRC’s first PhD degree in science, first PhD degree in engineering, first PhD degree to a female student, and first double PhD degrees.In June 2012, GUCAS was renamed UCAS.Now UCASboasts its fourcampusesof different locations (Yuquanlu, Zhongguancun,theOlympic Village,and Yanqi Lake), and has provided high qualityeducationto almost 200,000 studentsas of Dec, 2021.
UCAS isadministered and managedbyChinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which was established in 1949. Comprising more than 100 institutes, CAS is China's highest academic institution innaturalsciences, highest-rankingconsultinginstitution in science and technology, most preeminentresearch and development centerfor naturalsciencesand high technology, and most importantbase in thetrainingofadvanced scientific talents.
UCASespouses thephilosophyof"The Fusion of Scientific Research and Teaching" as its basic system of education.The fusion of UCAS andCASinstitutes in terms of management,education,faculty, training,and scientificresearch isfully supportedand facilitated by and underthe auspices ofCAS. CAS institutes shoulderthemain responsibilities of graduate education, and provide abundant resources including tutors andexperimental facilitiesforUCASundergraduates.Typically, multiple high-levelCASinstitutes oversee one amalgamated schoolofscience and engineering in UCAS.There is one leading institute that assumes the primary educational responsibility, with its juridical personservingas the school’s dean or executive vice dean who attend to education and management affairs.All collegesareorganizationallyidentified as either “College-Teaching and Research Sector” or “College-Department” educational bodies.As of Dec, 2021, UCAShad72 teaching and research institutes and16affiliated hospitals.
UCAS boasts a team of highly qualified faculty consisting of distinguished professors from CAS institutes with strongeducationandscientificresearch capabilities.It also provides first-class research environmentfor students toconductscientific research. As of Dec, 2021, UCAS had3,155 professors, 12880 supervisors, including 191 CAS members and 7537 PhD supervisors fromtwonational research centers (or labs), 73 national key labs, 191 CAS key labs, 39 national engineering research centers (labs) and various national frontier scientific research projects. This outstanding faculty are, thus, able toprovidean idealeducationalplatform for students toengage inscientific research.
As the largest graduate educationalinstitution of the country,themain focusofUCAS has long been postgraduate education.As ofDec, 2021,UCAS had 57,375postgraduate studentson campus, 51.3% of whom are PhD candidates, together with 1,640undergraduate students and 1,808 international students from 91 countries, of whom 1144werePhD students.
UCAS is authorized to conferall masters’and doctorate degrees in thescientificdisciplines, as well as90%of all degrees inthe engineering disciplines.UCASis also authorized to confer professionalasters’ degreesin suchdisciplines as finance, applied statistics, applied psychology, translation and interpreting, electronic information technology, mechanics, materials and chemical engineering, resources and environment, energy, civil and hydraulic engineering, biology and medicine, agriculture, pharmacy, business management, public management and engineering management.From 1978 to 2021, UCAS had conferred degrees to196,606students, including 195,264PhD. andmaster’s degrees,and 1342bachelor’sdegrees.Altogether 161 UCAS graduates were elected Full and Emeritus Members of CAS andChinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).
Taking advantages of the top notch research and human resources of CAS, UCAS is committed to building itself into a world-class university. According to the Essential Science Indicators(ESI) report released in March 2022, UCAS ranked 42th worldwide, and 1st among all the universities in Chinese mainland. In terms of ranking lists by research fields, UCAS found itself in the top 1‱ in the fields of materials science, chemistry and environment/ecology, the top 1‰ in 9 fields, including materials sciences, chemistry, environment/ecology, plant & animal sciences, geosciences, biology & biochemistry, physics, agricultural sciences and engineering, and the top 1% in 19 fields.
Based on CASand itsextensive internationalnetwork ofscientific cooperation, UCAS has established close partnerships with esteemed oversea institutions of higher learnings such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Stanford University and Cambridge University, and research institutes including British Royal Academy of Sciences, French National Research Center, German Academic Exchange Center, American Academy of Sciences. UCASis a member ofthe Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), and hasco-foundedthe Sino-Danish College in China with the Danish Ministry of Science and Education and eight Danish public universities, andhas established theICTP-AP with UNESCO.Supported by the Kavli Foundation of the United States, UCAS has alsofoundeda Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, one of the 20 Kavli institutes across the world. To help promote education in Belt and Road countries, UCAS has beeninvolvedin international projects,including UCAS Overseas Joint-Science and Educational Centre, ANSO fellowship andtheCAS“Belt and Road” Master fellowship program.
Embracingits motto “Knowledge, Devotion, Investigation, Virtue”,carrying theCAS tradition of “Science, Democracy, Patriotism and Dedication”,andpromoting aworkethicof “Practicality, Truth-seeking, Cooperation,and Innovation”, UCASpaysgreat attentionto and focuses onhelping students lay a solid foundation for future scientific researchin addition todevelopingaspirit of innovation,adown-to-earth character,andasense of social responsibility.In itsdevelopment path towards acomprehensive national science center, UCAS isreachingfurther to explore its potential inthe fusion of scientific researchand education, in order to build itself intoa topworld-class university by 2035.
