Peking Union Medical College

Peking Union Medical College is a public medical college located in Dongcheng district, Beijing, China. It is administered by the State Council's health administration department. It operates under an integrated management system with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, serving as China's highest-level medical research and medical education institution. The college is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.
Peking Union Medical College was formally dedicated in 1921, and is China's earliest medical institution to offer an 8-year medical education program and undergraduate nursing education. Due to cooperation with Tsinghua University for education, it was renamed Peking Union Medical College, Tsinghua University in 2006. Students and graduate students in both clinical and non-clinical medical programs will receive diplomas and degrees from both Tsinghua University and Peking Union Medical College upon graduation.

History

The Union Medical College was founded in 1906, bringing together six smaller missionary colleges. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., the London Missionary Society, and later, the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Medical Missionary Association of London, together with the then-Chinese government cooperated in the foundation and development of the Medical College and maintained it until 1915.
The Rockefeller Foundation was established in 1913 and in 1913-1914 the newly formed Foundation created a Commission, including Dr. Franklin C. McLean, to examine medical education in China. Dr Wu Lien-teh strongly supported the establishment of a new medical college in Peking and made a number of recommendations, all of which were adopted. One of its recommendations was that the Foundation - through a subsidiary organization - should assume financial responsibility for the college. On July 1, 1915, the recently established China Medical Board assumed full support of the Union Medical College, having previously acquired the property. The commission's members had included both William Welch, the first Dean of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, and Simon Flexner. The China Medical Board modeled the school after Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine following the recommendations of the Flexner Report, which set the foundation of modern Medical Education in the United States and Canada.
The PUMC was reorganized in 1917 and celebrated its 90th anniversary with a ceremony attended by the president of Johns Hopkins University, the chair of the China Medical Board and representatives of the Rockefeller family and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. John Black Grant, M.D., M.P.H. was a founding faculty member of PUMC and served from 1921 to 1938 as professor and chair of its Department of Public Health. Dr. Grant is the father of James P. Grant, the third executive director of UNICEF.
In 1951, the government of the People's Republic of China nationalized Peking Union Medical College. Maoist populists, however attacked the school as “the greatest bulwark for the American cultural aggression,” and many of the faculty were forced out. In 1956, the school came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health. During the Cultural Revolution, it was briefly renamed "Anti-imperialist Hospital."

Current status

At present, Peking Union Medical College has developed into a national-level comprehensive medical research institution integrating medical education, teaching, scientific research and production, with 21 research institutes, 6 affiliated hospitals, 10 colleges and 105 off-campus research and development institutions.
Peking Union Medical College has provided generations of leaders for academic and clinical medicine and related areas all over the world.
Peking Union Medical College is part of the Project 211， Project 985, Double First-Class Construction.

Rankings and reputation

As of 2025, Peking Union Medical College was listed as one of the top 200 universities in the World University Rankings. It is consistently ranked among the top medical schools in China and has ranked in the top 1 or 2 best nationwide, together with Capital Medical University among Chinese Medical Universities in the recognized Best Chinese Universities Ranking.
As of 2024, its "Biomedical Engineering" and "Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences" were ranked 34th and 2nd in the world respectively, while "Biological Sciences" and "Public Health" were placed in the top 100 in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. As of 2025, its "Pharmacology and Toxicology" also ranked 9th globally by the U.S. News & World Report.

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. It's the first global university ranking with multifarious indicators.

Year	Rank	Valuer
2023	1	ARWU Best Chinese Universities Ranking - Ranking of Chinese Medical Universities
2024	1	ARWU Best Chinese Universities Ranking - Ranking of Chinese Medical Universities

Research

The medical school is the home to 4 state key labs and 6 WHO collaborating centers including the:

WHO Collaborating Center for Health and Biomedical Information
WHO Collaborating Center for the Family of International Classification
WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing Policy-Making and Quality Management
WHO Collaborating Center for Traditional Medicine
WHO Collaborating Centre for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases
WHO Collaborating Centre for the Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology
The State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology
The State Key Laboratory of Bio-active substances and the function of natural medicines
The State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology
Affiliated Hospitals

Source:

1. [Peking Union Medical College Hospital] (北京协和医院), Beijing

This hospital is consistently ranked as the top hospital in China. It is a premier institution for general medicine and handling complex, rare diseases.

2. National Center for Cardiovascular Disease / Fuwai Hospital">Fuwai Hospital">National Center for Cardiovascular Disease / Fuwai Hospital (阜外医院), Beijing

As the largest cardiovascular disease specialist hospital in the world, it leads in cardiac and vascular surgery, interventional therapies, and research.

3. National Cancer Center / Cancer Hospital">:zh:中国医学科学院肿瘤医院">National Cancer Center / Cancer Hospital (肿瘤医院), Beijing

This is the leading national institution for cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and research. It is a comprehensive cancer center with the highest level of expertise.

4. Plastic Surgery Hospital">:zh:中国医学科学院整形外科医院">Plastic Surgery Hospital (整形外科医院), Beijing

It is the largest and most authoritative center for plastic and reconstructive surgery in China, famous for a wide range of procedures from complex reconstructive surgery to cosmetic surgery.

5. Blood Diseases Hospital & Institute of Hematology">Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital, CAMS & PUMC">Blood Diseases Hospital & Institute of Hematology (血液病医院), Tianjin

This hospital specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of blood diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

6. Hospital for Skin Diseases & Institute of Dermatology">:zh:中国医学科学院皮肤病研究所">Hospital for Skin Diseases & Institute of Dermatology (皮肤病医院), Nanjing

It is a institution for the diagnosis, treatment, research, and prevention of skin diseases, including complex and stubborn conditions.

Notable alumni

n April 2025, Peking Union Medical College in China was exposed by the media to have launched a clinical medicine doctoral training program in 2018 known as the "4+4" model, which consists of 4 years of non-medical undergraduate education followed by 4 years of medical professional education. The program uses the theory of liberal education as a justification, arguing that doctors should possess a broader knowledge base beyond medicine. This has sparked a debate between liberal education and specialized education. The public has expressed disapproval, claiming that it not only wastes the first four years of undergraduate study but also results in doctors trained under the liberal education theory lacking adequate medical skills. Furthermore, the program has been criticized as a shortcut for children of powerful and wealthy families to quickly obtain a doctoral degree.