Located in Beijing, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences was established with the approval of Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Its predecessor, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (GUCAS), was the 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 UCAS boasts its four campuses of different locations (Yuquanlu, Zhongguancun, the Olympic Village, and Yanqi Lake), and has provided high quality education to almost 200,000 students as of Dec, 2021.
UCAS and CAS
UCAS is administered and managed by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which was established in 1949. Comprising more than 100 institutes, CAS is China's highest academic institution in natural sciences, highest-ranking consulting institution in science and technology, most preeminent research and development center for natural sciences and high technology, and most important base in the training of advanced scientific talents.
UCAS Education: "The Fusion of Scientific Research and Education"
UCAS espouses the philosophy of "The Fusion of Scientific Research and Teaching" as its basic system of education. The fusion of UCAS and CAS institutes in terms of management, education, faculty, training, and scientific research is fully supported and facilitated by and under the auspices of CAS. CAS institutes shoulder the main responsibilities of graduate education, and provide abundant resources including tutors and experimental facilities for UCAS undergraduates. Typically, multiple high-level CAS institutes oversee one amalgamated school of science and engineering in UCAS. There is one leading institute that assumes the primary educational responsibility, with its juridical person serving as the school’s dean or executive vice dean who attend to education and management affairs. All colleges are organizationally identified as either “College-Teaching and Research Sector” or “College-Department” educational bodies. As of Dec, 2021, UCAS had 72 teaching and research institutes and 16 affiliated hospitals.
UCAS boasts a team of highly qualified faculty consisting of distinguished professors from CAS institutes with strong education and scientific research capabilities. It also provides first-class research environment for students to conduct scientific research. As of Dec, 2021, UCAS had 3,155 professors, 12880 supervisors, including 191 CAS members and 7537 PhD supervisors from two national 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 to provide an ideal educational platform for students to engage in scientific research.
As the largest graduate educational institution of the country, the main focus of UCAS has long been postgraduate education. As of Dec, 2021, UCAS had 57,375 postgraduate students on campus, 51.3% of whom are PhD candidates, together with 1,640 undergraduate students and 1,808 international students from 91 countries, of whom 1144 were PhD students.
UCAS is authorized to confer all masters’ and doctorate degrees in the scientific disciplines, as well as 90% of all degrees in the engineering disciplines. UCAS is also authorized to confer professional asters’ degrees in such disciplines 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 to 196,606 students, including 195,264 PhD. and master’s degrees, and 1342 bachelor’s degrees. Altogether 161 UCAS graduates were elected Full and Emeritus Members of CAS and Chinese 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.
International Cooperation
Based on CAS and its extensive international network of scientific 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. UCAS is a member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), and has co-founded the Sino-Danish College in China with the Danish Ministry of Science and Education and eight Danish public universities, and has established the ICTP-AP with UNESCO. Supported by the Kavli Foundation of the United States, UCAS has also founded a 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 been involved in international projects, including UCAS Overseas Joint-Science and Educational Centre, ANSO fellowship and the CAS “Belt and Road” Master fellowship program.
For Better Students, For Better Future
Embracing its motto “Knowledge, Devotion, Investigation, Virtue”, carrying the CAS tradition of “Science, Democracy, Patriotism and Dedication”, and promoting a work ethic of “Practicality, Truth-seeking, Cooperation, and Innovation”, UCAS pays great attention to and focuses on helping students lay a solid foundation for future scientific research in addition to developing a spirit of innovation, a down-to-earth character, and a sense of social responsibility. In its development path towards a comprehensive national science center, UCAS is reaching further to explore its potential in the fusion of scientific research and education, in order to build itself into a top world-class university by 2035.
