University of Chinese Academy of Science

UCAS is a higher education institution established with the approval of the Ministry of Education, focusing on graduate education. The predecessor of UCAS was the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences (GSCAS), which was founded in 1978 as the first graduate school in China by approval of the State Council. UCAS graduated the first doctoral student in science, first doctoral student in engineering, first female doctoral student and first student with double doctoral degrees in China. In 2014, UCAS began to recruit undergraduates.

Located in Beijing, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences was established with the approval of Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Its predecessor, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (GUCAS), was the first graduate school in China. UCAS granted the PRC’s first PhD degree in science, first PhD degree in engineering, first PhD degree to a female student, and first double PhD degrees. In June 2012, GUCAS was renamed UCAS. Now UCAS boasts its four campuses of different locations (Yuquanlu, Zhongguancun, the Olympic Village, and Yanqi Lake), and has provided high quality education to almost 200,000 students as of Dec, 2021.

UCAS is administered and managed by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which was established in 1949. Comprising more than 100 institutes, CAS is China's highest academic institution in natural sciences, highest-ranking consulting institution in science and technology, most preeminent research and development center for natural sciences and high technology, and most important base in the training of advanced scientific talents.

Based on CAS and its extensive international network of scientific cooperation, UCAS has established close partnerships with esteemed oversea institutions of higher learnings such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Stanford University and Cambridge University, and research institutes including British Royal Academy of Sciences, French National Research Center, German Academic Exchange Center, American Academy of Sciences. UCAS is a member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), and has co-founded the Sino-Danish College in China with the Danish Ministry of Science and Education and eight Danish public universities, and has established the ICTP-AP with UNESCO. Supported by the Kavli Foundation of the United States, UCAS has also founded a Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, one of the 20 Kavli institutes across the world. To help promote education in Belt and Road countries, UCAS has been involved in international projects, including UCAS Overseas Joint-Science and Educational Centre, ANSO fellowship and the CAS “Belt and Road” Master fellowship program.