Introduction to RUC

GENERAL INFORMATION

Located in Beijing, the national capital of China, Renmin University of China (RUC) is a key comprehensive and research-orientated university, and also the most prestigious university in the humanities and social sciences in China’s higher education.

 

RUC was established in 1937 during the resistance war against Japanese aggression. The University acquired its present name on October 3, 1950, which made it the first university to be established by the newly founded People's Republic of China. Well-known educators including Wu Yuzhang, Cheng Fangwu, Yuan Baohua. Huang Da, and Li Wenhai have all served as president of the University. RUC incumbent president is Professor Ji Baocheng, and Professor Cheng Tianquan is the Chairman of the University Council.

 

Since its establishment, sharing a common mission with the Party and the nation, RUC students and teachers have always endeavored to make RUC the vanguard of the era. RUC has been regarded as "A Standard in the Humanities and Social Sciences in China’s Higher Education Sector" for a long time.

 

EDUCATION

 RUC now comprises 22 schools of different disciplines,14 inter-disciplinary research centers, 16 transitional centers for post-doctoral fellows, and also a School of Continuing Education, a School of Education and Training, the Shenzhen Research Institute, and International College(Suzhou Research Institute).

 

For now, RUC ranks first at least in the following areas among all universities in China in the humanities and social sciences area:

·RUC owes 13 key national research bases in the humanities and social sciences;

·RUC owes 8 key national main disciplines and 8 key national secondary disciplines;

·RUC owes 25 awarded doctoral degree dissertations of nationwide outstanding prizes in the past 11 years and ranking first in amount compared with other institutions;

·RUC owes 7 disciplines that’s been ranked No.1 by Ministry of Education in 2009

 

The quality of postgraduate research is witnessed in the 25 doctoral degree dissertations that have been awarded outstanding prizes in nationwide evaluations of Ph.D dissertations. RUC is now authorized to offer bachelor's degrees in 65 areas, and double degree in 8 areas. RUC has 158 Masters programs and 104 Ph.D. programs. According to the Ministry of Education’s appraisal release of 2009, 7 disciplines of the university, namely Applied Economics, Theoretical Economics, Law, Political Science, Sociology, Journalism & Communication and Marxism Studies have been ranked No.1 nationwide, Philosophy and Library Information and Archive Management No.2 and Business Administration No.3. These remarkable data has once again proved the leadership of Renmin in humanities and social sciences of Chinese higher education..

 

FACULTY

 

RUC’s renowned scholars of past generations has continuously striven to pave a solid foundation for the construction and development of disciplines, in education and training, and for furthering research. These scholars include Wu Yuzhang, Cheng Fangwu, Fan Wenlan, Ai Siqi, He Sijing, He Ganzhi, He Luo, He Hua, Shang Yue, Wu Jingchao, Li Jinghan, An Gang, Shi Jun, Miao Langshan, Li Xiulin, Xu He, Han Feng, Xu Mengxiong, Meng Yang, Tong Rou, Dai Shiguang, Liu Zheng, Zha Ruichuan, and Miao Litian. At present, RUC has a large group of well-known leading scholars who are highly regarded both in China and overseas.

 

A highly qualified and well structured teaching and research body has been formed. As of October 2009, RUC has a faculty of 1759 which includes 504 professors and 606 associate professors. In addition, since 1979, more than 500 eminent scholars from overseas have served as long term faculty at RUC as honorary professors, resident professors, or part-time professors. 

 

STUDENTS

 

At 2009, RUC reached an enrollment of 22,856 full-time students, including 10,852 undergraduate students, 9,834 postgraduate students, 1,578 international students and 592 other students. In addition, RUC also has an enrollment of 3,650 master students of single diploma, 12,852 students of adult education, and 42,815 online learning students.

 

With the idea of building a world class university, focusing on humanities and social sciences with elite natural sciences & engineering as supplement, RUC is devoted to making students "outstanding exemplars of the country, and the backbone of the society", cultivating talents well adapted to the 21st century. RUC has produced a large body of talented personnel in the theoretical, practical, and managerial worlds, in order to promote China's economic construction and social development. Since 1937, the university has cultivated more than 200,000 high-level talents for society most of whom have become well known in their fields of work, and who individually or collectively have made a great contribution to the development and progress of China or even of the World.

 

RESEARCH

 

As one of the most prominent research institutions in China, holding the idea that humanities and social sciences should play a more essential role to help know nature and the world, to inherit human civilization, to innovate knowledge, to cultivate people and to serve society, RUC has made important contribution in research into major issues in politics, economics, culture and social studies. The role RUC has played, and the contributions RUC has made, have provided a strong theoretical underpinning and intellectual support for China's economic construction and social development.

 

Since 2001, RUC has received nearly 200 provincial or ministerial research awards. RUC ranks No.1 regarding to the whole amount of projects secured from the National Social Sciences Foundation or the Key Projects on National Strategy in Humanities and Social Sciences from the Ministry of Education. RUC again ranks first among all universities in China with respect to the total yearly number of articles published in CSSCI(Chinese Social Science Citation Index) journals in the between 2004 to 2008.

 

RUC and the WORLD

RUC is also a key platform for academic and cultural exchanges between China and the world. RUC has established academic exchange relationships with about 189 universities from 49 countries and regions in the world. As of October 2009, RUC has participated in the establishment of 13 overseas Confucius Institutes. From 2009 on, RUC initiated its remarkable international programs like the Summer School, which enrolled nearly 300 international students for the last two years; like the 8 master programs all taught in English, etc..

 

RUC has hosted or organized a series of high-level international conferences on campus, conducted a lot of international research programs. RUC hosts top political leaders or heads of various world organizations, renowned scholars, etc. frequently. Three incumbent or former leaders visited RUC in 2010:

September 4, 2010, Mr. Yasuo Fukuda , former Prime Minister of Japan visited RUC;

August 25, 2010, Mr. Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa visited RUC;

June 15, 2010, Miss Mary Mcaleese, President of Ireland visited RUC;

 

Some internationally recognized scholars have been awarded the title of honorary professor by RUC. For example:

Robert Mondell, Nobel Prize winner, a well-known economist 

Joseph E. Stiglitz,

Michael Spence,

Ronald Mckinnon,the founder of modern financial development theory, a well-known economist

Padma Desai,the founder of transitional economic theory, a well-known economist

Edmund S. Phelps,the hand behind the seminal work, Microeconomic Foundations of Employment and Inflation Theory, a famous economist

Jean-Jacques Laffont,well-known economist from France

Jagdish Bhagwati,a former consultant to the UN and presently a professor at Columbia

Nicholas H. Stern,Vice-President of the World Bank

Daisaku Ikeda,Famous thinker and educator from Japan

Ishi Hiromitsu, Chancellor of Hitotsubashi University, Japan

Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO

Sparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan

 

Some internationally renowned people have been awarded an honorary Ph.D. degree by RUC, For example:

J.C. Harsanyi, Nobel Prize winner, a famous economist

Robert Mundell￡?Nobel Prize winner, a well-known economist

de la Lengua, former President of Argentina

Takeshita Noboru, former Prime Minister of Japan

Michael Kenneth Moore, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former Director General of the WTO

 

ACADEMIC RESERVE
RUC also functions as a resource center for data, information, and publications in the humanities and social sciences in China. The University Library has advanced facilities and has a collection of 3.89 million volumes. The CALIS Information Center in Social Sciences and Humanities, which was established by the Ministry of Education, is located within the University Library. The China Renda Social Sciences Information Center is an authoritative institution that collects, categorizes, stores, and publicizes publications in the humanities, social sciences, economics, and management studies. The Annual Newspaper Data Reference edited and published by the China Renda Social Sciences Information Center is one of the four major document retrieving indexes in China. RUC Press was the first university publishing house established after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and is an important academic publishing house for university textbooks, as well as for academic and theoretical works in the humanities and social sciences.

 

RUC AND CHINESE TOP LEADERS
Chinese top leaders Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping all had great confidence and encouraged the development of Renmin University of China. Communist Party leaders have continued to show great concern for the construction and development of RUC. Mr. Jiang Zemin, former President of China, wrote inscriptions for RUC on two occasions, expressing his high expectations that RUC could do its best to produce outstanding talented personnel for the construction of socialist modernization in the new century. Mr. Jiang Zemin visited RUC on 28 April, 2002, and made an important speech in which he expressed the hope that RUC would, "Achieve new accomplishments in the new century, make greater contributions to the motherland, for the people, and for the construction of socialist modernization, and become one of the world's best and most renowned universities in the humanities and social sciences". Mr. Hu Jintao visited RUC on Sept. 9, 2010, who affirmed and encouraged RUC’s goal to build into “a world-renowned university that is approved by and satisfies the people”.

 

At present, RUC are holding high the standard that "Development is the Paramount Principle", we strive to emancipate the mind, to seek truth from facts, to maintain our position at the forefront of knowledge, to creatively forge ahead with full force to build a world-renowned university that is approved by and satisfies the people.