110th Birthday-Peking University北大110周年

May 4th, 2008 is the 110th Anniversary of Peking University.
北京大学
běijīng dàxué

In China, the education is divided into three categories: basic education, higher education, and adult education. The Compulsory Education Law of stipulates that each child have nine years of formal education. Do you know the common Chinese words for school and university? ChineseHour is telling you now. It is quite easy to understand them if you stress on 小xiǎo (small) - 中 zhōng (intermmediate) - 大 dà (big) , and 学 xué means “to learn” as a verb and “school” as a noun.
小 学 xiǎoxué (small) primary school
中 学 zhōngxué (intermmediate) middle school
大 学 dàxué (big) university

Founded in 1898, Peking University (PKU) is the first national university in Chinese modern history. Peking University now consists of five faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, Medicine, and Information and Engineering. The University has 31 colleges and 14 departments, and offers 100 undergraduate programs, 221 postgraduate programs, and 199 doctoral programs.

On Nov. 4th,2007, according to a ranking published by the Times of London, Peking University ranks 17th on the Top University list. The ranking was given by The Times Higher Education Supplement, according to an international survey among 1300 scholars from 88 countries. The evaluation was based on the number of research achievements of a university that are quoted by other universities and institutes, as well as the proportion of faculty and students, the capacity of attracting foreign students, and the number of scholars of international prestige in the global education market. According to the ranking, Peking University ranks the second in Asian universities, and second only to Tokyo University in Japan.

The University consists of 30 colleges and 12 departments, with 93 specialties for undergraduates, 2 specialties for the second Bachelor’s degree, 199 specialties for Master candidates and 173 specialties for Doctoral candidates. While still laying stress on basic sciences, the university has paid special attention to the development of applied sciences.

At present, Peking university has 216 research institutes and research centres, and there are 2 national engineering research centres, 81 key national disciplines, 12 national key laboratories.

The Peking University library is the largest university library in Asia, with a collection of 7.03 million books and more than 6,500 titles of Chinese and foreign journals and newspapers. The library also serves as a comprehensive modern information center.

International students have the following options of study at Peking University:
(1) Undergraduate or graduate degree-granting programs;
(2) Visiting student status (non-degree granting) for one or two years;
(3) Pre-enrollment training program;
(4) Short-term language courses or Chinese studies programs.