Beijing Institute of Technology


The Beijing Institute of Technology is a public, comprehensive, research university located in Haidian District, Beijing City, China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.
BIT is one of the top universities in China. It was originally established as the Yan'an Natural Science Academy in 1940 in Yan'an, Shaanxi.

General rankings

BIT is ranked among the top 15 universities in China and the top 150 in the world by ARWU. In recent national level evaluations BIT was among the first 15 universities to be designated into Project 211. It is also the 10th university to be designated into Project 985. Together with Tsinghua University, Peking University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beihang University, BIT is widely considered to be one of the best engineering schools in Beijing.
Subject 'rankings
According to the China Discipline Ranking conducted by a research center affiliated with the China Ministry of Education, BIT ranks among top 10 nationally in the following ten disciplines:
  • Optical Engineering: ranked 5.
  • Aerospace Science and Engineering: ranked 5.
  • Mechanical Engineering: ranked 7.
  • Information Engineering: ranked 5.
  • Metallurgical Engineering: ranked 7.
  • Transportation and Traffic Engineering: ranked 9.
  • Instrument Sciences and Technology: ranked 10.
  • Automation Science and Engineering: ranked 10.
  • Chemical Engineering: ranked 10.
Note': According to the ranking's classification of academic disciplines, BIT was evaluated in about 20 disciplines.

History

Yan'an period (1940–1946)

Beijing Institute of Technology has its origins in the Yan'an Research Academy of Natural Sciences. BIT was established May 1939 in Yan'an, Shaanxi by the Chinese Communist Party with the aim of training science and engineering professionals. In January 1940 when China was undergoing the most difficult phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party reformed the Yan'an Research Academy of Natural Sciences into the Yan'an Academy of Natural Sciences. The mission of the academy was to assist industrial development in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region. Opened on 1 September 1940 it was the first science and engineering university founded by the Chinese Communist Party. Li Fuchun, secretary of the CCP Committee for Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region, was appointed as the first president and was succeeded by educationist Xu Teli.
During the founding period the Yan'an Academy of Natural Sciences received support from international organizations and individuals including Rewi Alley.
In March 1943 the Yan'an Academy of Natural Sciences merged with the newly founded University of Yan'an and was named the School of Natural Sciences University of Yan'an.
At the end of 1945 the University of Yan'an moved to the north of China.

Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region period (1946–1949)

In January 1946 the School of Natural Sciences moved to Zhangjiakou. The Central Bureau of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region decided to settle the School at Zhangjiakou and merged it with Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region College of Technology to form the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region College.
At the end of the same year the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Institute moved to Hebei and merged with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Academy of Railway to form the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region College of Industry and Transportation. One year later the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Institute moved to Jingxing County and was renamed the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Bureau of Industry College of Technology. In August 1948 it merged with the Institute of Technology Northern University to form the Institute of Technology North China University.

Institute of Technology North China University period (1949–1952)

The home campus of Sino-French University and its Departments of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry were merged into the Institute of Technology North China University in October 1950.
During the Cultural Revolution most research at Beijing Institute of Technology came to a halt but quickly resumed after 1976.

Post-economic reform period (1988–present)

On April 2, 1988, Beijing Institute of Technology was officially named and defined as a comprehensive university specializing in engineering while integrating science, management, and liberal arts. At that time, it comprised 16 departments and 33 majors, including vehicle engineering, applied physics, foreign languages, and industrial design. The university also housed 22 research institutes and 62 laboratories. In 1994, BIT established an institute dedicated to evaluating degree and postgraduate education. It was selected for China "211 Project" in 1995 and later included in the "985 Project" in 2000. Since 2008, the university has been directly managed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
As of 2015 BIT has established cooperation with more than 200 universities from 58 countries and implemented student exchange programs with more than 40 universities in the world including the Technical University of Munich, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, University of California and The Australian National University.

Campus

Zhongguancun, Beijing

Zhongguangcun campus has an area of 920,700 square meters, including a floor space of 724,000 square meters. It is the oldest campus of BIT. Since the opening of Liangxiang campus in 2007 Zhongguancun campus is mainly used to host higher year undergraduate students and postgraduate students.

Liangxiang, Beijing

Since 2007 undergraduate students are located on the Liangxiang campus which is based in Liangxiang University Town, Fangshan District of Beijing.

Xishan, Beijing

Xishan Laboratory Research Center is located in Beijing.

Fangshan, Beijing

The BIT Fangshan campus was co-founded by BIT and the Fangshan District government and is located in the Fangshan District of Beijing.

Qinhuangdao, Hebei

Founded in 1984, the Qinhuangdao campus offers one-year pre-university program for ethnic minority students whose first language is not Mandarin. Qinhuangdao campus also accepts pre-university ethnic minority students who will apply to Beihang University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University and Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Zhuhai, Guangdong

The Zhuhai campus is based in the Guangdong province of China. The speciality of Zhuhai campus lies in providing continuing education, distance learning courses. The campus is managed by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education and focuses on serving the development of the Pearl River Delta region.

Academics

Education

BIT has 16 national key disciplines and 25 ministry-level key disciplines. BIT offers bachelor's degrees in 60 majors, Master's degrees in 144 majors and Doctorate degrees in 62 majors. It also has 17 post-doctorate stations.

Research

BIT's research strength lies in electrical engineering, information engineering, automation, photonics, mechanical Engineering, vehicle engineering, aerospace engineering and chemical engineering. Emerging research areas developed in recent years include Computer Science, Industrial Design and Higher education research.
BIT has five national key laboratories, six national defense key laboratories, two MOST key laboratories and four Beijing municipal key laboratories. It also has a national key science park. The annual research expenditure in 2004 was more than 620 million RMB. BIT has a think tank, the Center for Energy & Environmental Policy Research that conducts research on energy economics and environmental management.

Library

Renovation of the main library was completed in 2006. The state-of-the-art building has an area of 25,509 square meters and is covered by a wireless network. It has a collection of more than 3 million items, including 1.13 million electronic items.

Press

The BIT Press was established in 1985 and has published more than 3,000 books.

Notable alumni

Among the 100,000 BIT alumni there are Fellows of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, officials with rank higher than provincial governor and generals of the Chinese military.

Politicians