Peking University

About Peking University

Peking University was founded in 1898 as the Imperial University of Peking, and in 2000 it merged with Beijing Medical University. Its main campus, known as Yan Yuan, is in Haidian District, Beijing, and the university also operates a graduate school in Shenzhen. Teaching is organised in faculty groupings covering the sciences, informatics, engineering, the humanities, the social sciences, economics and management, and a Health Science Center, which together include 55 schools and departments. The university also has 60 research entities and ten affiliated hospitals. Its welcome message describes more than 48,600 students, including nearly 2,500 international students, and over 12,600 faculty and staff, while its facts and figures for December 2020 list 46,113 full-time students.

Schools and faculties

• Faculty of Sciences

  Includes the School of Mathematical Sciences, School of Physics and College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering.

• Faculty of Informatics

  Includes the School of Computer Science, School of Electronics and School of Integrated Circuits.

• Faculty of Engineering

  Includes the College of Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering.

• Faculty of Humanities

  Includes the Department of History and the Department of Chinese Language and Literature.

• Faculty of Social Sciences

  Includes the Law School, School of International Studies and School of Journalism and Communication.

• Faculty of Economics & Management

  Includes the School of Economics, Guanghua School of Management and National School of Development.

• Health Science Center

  Includes the School of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Public Health and School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Study options

• Undergraduate education
• Graduate education
• International flagship programmes and summer school
• English-taught courses
• Online courses

Research

Peking University carries out research through 60 research entities, including interdisciplinary institutes such as the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Institute for Artificial Intelligence. It also publishes academic journals including Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica and Earth Science Frontiers, and recent research news covers topics such as land subsidence in Chinese cities and climate and vegetation change.

Rank in China

#5 of 25

Research works

326,537

Citations

29.7 million

h-index

1,099

Research figures from OpenAlex (October 2026). How the directory is made.

This profile was written by WAC from Peking University’s own website and checked in October 2026. It describes the institution and is not an endorsement or a ranking of teaching quality. Is this your institution? Send a correction.