Renmin University of China (RUC, also known as the People's University of China) is a key university in China. The RUC's strengths emphasize the humanities and social sciences; however, the university also embraces disciplines in the area of natural sciences. The RUC is a comprehensive research-orientated university.
The 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.
Since its establishment, RUC students and teachers have always endeavored to carry out its redoubtable injunction to "unceasingly strive to be always in the vanguard". The RUC shares a common fate with the Party and the nation. Through prudence, dedicated effort, active and practical exploration, the RUC has become an important teaching and research base in the areas of the humanities, social sciences, and management science in China. Owing to its efforts in spreading and popularizing Marxism in China, for its achievements in developing philosophy and the social sciences in China, and on account of its indispensable contributions to the cause of socialist construction and reform, the RUC is regarded as "A Standard in the Humanities and Social Sciences in China’s Higher Education Sector".
With undergraduate education as the base and an emphasis on postgraduate education, supplemented by adult education courses and online learning, the RUC has formed a multi-dimensional structure and multilevel system in education and research. The RUC has a Graduate School which is responsible for the administration of postgraduate students, and RUC now comprises twenty-one schools of different disciplines (a Chemistry Department has been established for the near future creation of a School of Natural Sciences). The RUC also has a substantial number of research centers, fourteen transitional centers for post-doctoral fellows, and also a School of Continuing Education, a School of Education and Training, and the Shenzhen Research Institute. The RUC ranks first in three areas among all universities in China: there are six national research bases in fundamental disciplines in the literary arts; thirteen key national research bases in the humanities and social sciences; and twenty-five essential domestic disciplines are taught on campus, which places the RUC first in the social sciences and humanities nationwide.
The RUC has a strong faculty. Renowned scholars of past generations strove to pave a solid foundation for the construction and development of disciplines, in education and training, and for furthering research. At present, the 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. This year the RUC has a staff of 1,485 which includes 424 professors and 595 associate professors. The RUC has the top ranking in terms of the number of scholars who have gained official recognition from both the national and Beijing municipal governments.
In addition, 198 eminent scholars from overseas, and 930 well-known intellectuals and scientists from various fields in China, have contributed to the teaching and research at the RUC as honorary professors, resident professors, or part-time professors.
At present, the RUC has an enrollment of 18,752 students, which breaks down into 9,262 undergraduate students and 9,490 postgraduate students. The ratio of postgraduates to undergraduates is the highest of all the research-orientated comprehensive universities in China. In addition, the RUC also has an enrollment of 10,000 in adult education, about 80 percent of whom are doing courses leading to a Bachelor's degree. At the RUC, there is a collective enrolment of 30,000 Chinese students engaged in online learning, and there are 1,066 international students.
The RUC's education standard is to cultivate and produce "outstanding exemplars for the nation and the backbone of society". Giving full play to the advantages conferred by having the largest number of branches of learning in the humanities and social sciences, and augmenting that with the RUC's overall high standard in these fields, the 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 turned out 180,000 high-level talented personnel in various fields who have become well known in their fields of work, and who individually and collectively have made a great contribution to the development and progress of the country.