China University of Political Science and Law, or CUPL, is a prestigious university in China under the direct leadership of the State Ministry of Education (MOE). It is one of China’s top universities listed under the Double First Class University Plan, the Project 211 and Project 985, all comprising elite Chinese universities. CUPL is also listed in the Project 2011 and the Plan 111, i.e. the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities. CUPL is well known for legal academics and enjoys a distinguished reputation in politics, economics, management, arts, history, philosophy, education, as well as disciplines related to engineering and sciences. Now CUPL is focusing on developing itself into a world class university with world class discipline. Located in Beijing, CUPL has two campuses, the Xueyuanlu campus in Haidian District and the Fuxuelu campus in Changping District.
CUPL’s predecessor (The Peking College of Political Science and Law―founded in 1952), combined departments of law, political science and sociology of Peking University, Yenching University, Fu Jen Catholic University, and Tsinghua University. The college was originally located at the Beach Charm in Beijing and moved to Xuyuan Lu in 1954. In 1960, it became the key national college designated by China. During the Cultural Revolution, the school was suspended and was later reopened in 1978. In 1983, merged with the Central Cadres’ College of Political Science, it was subsequently renamed the China University of Political Science and Law. The then Chinese leader Mr. Deng Xiaoping, awarded his own handwriting of the school name. Subsequently, three divisions emerged: an undergraduate school, a postgraduate school, and a school of advanced training. In 1985, the university established a new campus in the Changping district of Beijing. Later the school of advanced training was renamed Central Leadership Institute of Politics and Law and had been operated independently for a certain period. Then in 2000, the independent school was re-incorporated into CUPL.
CUPL is praised as the “the most prestigious law school for legal talent cultivation in China” and “the academic center of humanities and social sciences in China”. Over the past 60 years or so, CUPL has educated and trained more than 200,000 graduates. It is the main force of national legal education and legal personnel training. It has participated in almost all legislative activities in China since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and assumed a leading role in the innovation of national legal education, legal theory and legal thought. CUPL has played a key role in representing the country in international legal academic and legal culture exchanges. At the same time, the multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary talent training model has provided a large number of high-level specialists in humanities and social science for the society and has become a new force in the training of talents in fields such as politics, economics, social sciences and culture in China. On May 3, 2017, President Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of China, visited CUPL and delivered an important speech on comprehensive rule of law, cultivation of legal talents and the growth of young talents. In President Xi’s speech, he also pointed out the direction for the further development of CUPL.
There are 17,233 students in the university, including 9,848 undergraduates, 6,905 graduate students, 840 students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan of the P.R.C. and foreign countries; there are 912 full-time faculty, including 197 and 663 supervisors for masters and doctoral students and 319 full professors. Doctoral and master's degree holders accounted for 90.90% of the faculty.
CUPL comprises 18 teaching units, including Law School, Civil, Commercial and Economic Law School, School of International Law, School of Criminal Justice, School of Political Science and Public Administration, School of Business, School of Humanities, School of Foreign Languages, School of Marxism, School of Sociology, Guangming School of Journalism and Communication, China-EU School of Law (CESL), School of Juris Master, International Confucian Academy, School of International Studies / Education Center of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Affairs, School of Continuing Education / School of Online Education, Department of Science and Technology / School of Information Management For Law, and Department of Physical Education. There are also 11 scientific research institutes, 10 new-type research institutes and three collaborative innovation centers. Among them, there are two key research bases for humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, i.e. the Procedural Law Research Institute and the Legal History Research Institute, one key laboratory of the Ministry of Education, i.e. the Institute of Evidence Law and Forensic Science, and one Beijing philosophy and social science research base, i.e. the School of Law-based Government; there are also one national high-end think tank construction and cultivation unit, i.e. the Institute for Human Rights, one national human rights education and training base, two innovation and intelligence base of the Ministry of Education under the “Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities“, one youth legal education research base of the Ministry of Education , one teachers’ legal education research center of the Ministry of Education, one national law teacher training base of the Ministry of Education, and one direct-contact unit of Ancient Documents Research Committee of the National Institute of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education. The “Collaborative Innovation Center of Judicial Civilization” led by CUPL is one of the first “2011 Plan” collaborative innovation centers identified by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance. The “Collaborative Innovation Center for Territorial Sovereignty and Maritime Rights” organized by CUPL is one of the second batch of 24 “2011 Plan” collaborative innovation centers. The "Collaborative Innovation Center for Marxism and Comprehensive Rule of Law" led by CUPL is recognized as a collaborative innovation center for theoretical research on socialism with Chinese characteristics among Beijing universities.
CUPL offers 24 undergraduate programs, including Law, Science of Investigation, Political Science and Administration, Administration Management, International Politics, Public Service Administration, Business Administration, Economics, International Business, Financial Engineering, Philosophy, Chinese Linguistic and Literature, Chinese, Education in Ideology and Politics, Sociology, Social Work, Applied Psychology, English Language and Literature, German Language and Literature, Translation and Interpreting, Journalism, Network and New Media, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, and Information Management and Information System (Rule of Law Information Management), of which Law, Political Science and Administration as well as the Sociology are national-level featured programs.
CUPL offers 37 doctoral programs, 77 academic master degree programs, eight professional master degree programs and three post-doctoral research programs. Law, Political Science, Marxist Theory and Theoretical Economics are the authorized primary Doctoral specialties; Philosophy, Applied Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Foreign Languages and Literature, Journalism, Chinese History, Business Administration, and Public Administration are the authorized primary Master’s specialties, of which Law is a first-degree national key discipline and politics is a first-degree key discipline in Beijing. In the fourth round of China Discipline Assessment, nine first degree disciplines of CUPL were assessed and rated by the Ministry of Education. The discipline of law was rated A+, ranked first in China, and the discipline of politics ranked eighth in China. Sociology, Philosophy, Marxist Theory and other disciplines achieved good results.
The university collaborates with 258 distinguished universities, institutions and international organizations in 53 countries and regions. Among them, universities of the world's top 500 with substantial cooperation programs account for 60%. Each year, hundreds of teachers and students travel abroad for international exchanges and studies, and hundreds of long-term and short-term foreign experts are invited to give lectures. The China-EU School of Law (CESL), founded in 2008, is the most comprehensive Sino-EU joint program in the field of legal education and research. Since 2009, CUPL has developed full strategy for internationalization to consistently enhance its school-running, and the pattern of training international talents in the university has taken shape. Since 2012, CUPL has co-established four Confucius Institutes (CIs) in the UK, Romania, Barbados and Norway.
CUPL Motto: Keep integrity and law in mind and studying for the people, developing moral education, mastering the law, looking for truth and serving for the public.
CUPL will continue to follow the national education policy and the rules of higher education, carry forward the tradition while advancing with the trends of time. CUPL continues to develop its international reputation―striving for excellence in innovation, multiple disciplines, openness, and international reach.
Notes: statistics about students and teachers are updated in September 2018 and other statistics are updated in January 2019.
