Dating back to 1905 when Tongzhou Normal University was established, Capital Normal University (CNU) was founded in 1954. As a top university included in China’s Double First-Class Initiative and a province-ministry co-constructed university co-constructed by Beijing and the Ministry of Education, CNU provides various disciplines including literature, science, engineering, management, law, education, foreign language and art. Over the past 70 years, CNU has cultivated more than 200,000 senior talents and has been an important base for talent cultivation in Beijing.

Capital Normal University covers an area of approximately 1,036,500 square meters, with a total building area of about 973,200 square meters. The teaching and research conditions of the university are excellent, and the total assets of teaching and research instruments and equipment amount to over 1,889,513,700 RMB. The library has a collection of more than 16,922,000 various books and documents, with a solid foundation for its collection, making it one of the key document resource libraries in the country.

CNU boasts of 31 faculties and centers, namely the School of Literature, the School of History, the College of Political Science and Law, the College of Education, the College of Teacher Education, the Capital Institute of Basic Education Development and Research, the School of Psychology, the College of Foreign Languages, the College of Marxism Education, the School of Management, the Music College, the College of Fine Arts, the School of Mathematical Sciences, the Department of Physics, the Department of Chemistry, the College of Life Sciences, the College of Resource Environment and Tourism, the Information Engineering College, the Elementary Education College, the College of Preschool Education, the Program in General Education, the School of Continuing Education, the Jingjiang College, the College of International Education, the Research Institute of the Culture of Calligraphy of China, the Honors College, the Research Institute for Arts and Aesthetic Education, the Institute of Cultural Studies, the Academy for Interdisciplinary Studies and so on. It also has the Teaching and Research Department of College English and the Teaching and Research Department of Physical Education.

Presently, CNU runs 19 first-class disciplines for doctoral degree, 15 postdoctoral research centers, 26 first-class disciplines for master’s degree, 4 professional doctoral degree categories, 20 professional master’s degree categories. CNU has independently formulated 19 degree-awarding second-level programs beyond the catalog of the Ministry of Education and 9 degree-awarding interdisciplinary programs. CNU also has 4 national key disciplines, 1 discipline under national key cultivation, 8 municipal first-class key disciplines, 12 municipal second-class key disciplines, 2 first-class disciplines under municipal key construction, 13 second-class disciplines under municipal key construction, 4 first-class disciplines under municipal key cultivation and 2 municipal key interdisciplines.

CNU offers 59 majors for undergraduate education. CNU has 7 national characteristic majors, 10 municipal characteristic majors. There are 35 national first-class specializations and 14 Beijing first-class specializations. CNU also boasts 7 national teaching teams (including 1 national Huang-Danian-style teachers’ team), 8 municipal teaching teams, 6 excellent Beijing undergraduate education teams and 3 excellent Beijing undergraduate teaching and management talents, 2 national excellent teachers, and 47 municipal excellent teachers. CNU has 3 top students in basic disciplines Training Program 2.0 bases, 3 national innovation and experiment zones for talents training mode, 1 municipal innovation pilot zone for talents training mode, 1 national off-campus practice and education base for college students, and 2 municipal demonstration campus innovation and practice bases of higher education. As for courses, CNU has 21 national undergraduate courses, 12 national excellent courses, 29 municipal excellent courses and 1 national bilingual teaching demonstration course, 27 municipal high-quality undergraduate courses. CNU also has excellent open classes, including 1 national excellent video open class, 6 national excellent resource sharing classes, 8 national excellent resource sharing classes for teaching and education. As for textbooks, CNU has 20 textbooks for the 11th Five-year Plan of the Ministry of Education, 5 national excellent textbooks, 1 municipal classical textbook of higher education, 106 municipal excellent textbooks of higher education and 16 national textbooks for undergraduate education in the 12th Five-year Plan and 28 pieces of municipal high-quality undergraduate courseware. In the evaluation of outstanding teaching achievements, CNU won 3 first prizes and 16 second prizes of the National Outstanding Teaching Achievement Award, 141 prizes (including cooperative programs) of the Beijing Municipal Outstanding Teaching Achievement Award. CNU has 27 programs included in the Beijing Municipal Undergraduate Teaching Reform and Innovation Program.

CNU currently has 61 research institutes (including institutes, centers), laboratories established at the provincial and ministerial level, such as the Beijing National Center for Applied Mathematics, and 112 university-level research institutes (centers), as well as the Beijing University Science and Technology Park. Since the implementation of the 12th Five-year Plan, 2,367 of CNU’s scientific research programs at or above the provincial or ministerial level have been approved, including 758 programs supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 33 major projects of the National Natural Science Foundation, 82 programs and sub-programs of the State Key Research and Development Program, 457 projects of the National Social Science Fund, 52 major projects of the National Social Science Fund. CNU awarded 161 provincial and ministerial-level honors, including the National Natural Science Award and the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Award.

 There are totally 26,880 students, among whom 12,423 are undergraduates, 136 are junior college students, 7,621 are postgraduates, 1,732 are PhD students, 3,127 are adult education students and 1,850 are international students. An all-round and multi-level education system has been formed in CNU. Students have received multiple awards in national and municipal competitions such as the Challenge Cup, Mathematical Modeling and Computer Applications Competition, Electronic Competition, and English Speech Contest. The training of high-level talent has yielded significant results, with 2 national excellent doctoral dissertation awards, 8 national excellent doctoral dissertation nominations, and 17 Beijing municipal excellent doctoral dissertation awards.

With a teaching staff of 2,405, CNU now has 1,644 full-time teachers, among whom 401 have a full senior professional title, 553 have an associate senior professional title, 1,232 have a PhD degree, and 374 have a master’s degree. Those with a master’s degree or higher account for 97.69% of the total. At present, CNU has a group of experts and scholars who have a certain influence both domestically and internationally, including 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 31 national-level leading talents such as recipients of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund, and 22 national-level young talents such as recipients of the National Excellent Youth Science Fund. There are 12 selected for the "Beijing Scholars Program," 32 for Beijing projects, and 30 for Beijing's Science and Technology Stars. Among CNU’s teachers, there are 5 members of the Discipline Evaluation Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, 6 members of the State Council Professional Degree Graduate Education Advisory Committee, 11 members of the Discipline Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, 11 members of Education Ministry's Professional Committee for Teaching Guidance in Basic Education and 3 innovation teams under the Ministry of Education.

CNU is one of the universities approved by the Ministry of Education to accept foreign students and a member of the Beijing-Hong Kong Universities Alliance. It is a demonstration base for studying in China awarded by the Ministry of Education among the universities in Beijing. It has been authorized as a preparatory education base for undergraduate international students under the Chinese Government Scholarship by the Ministry of Education, as well as a talent training base for countries along the "Belt and Road" initiative in Beijing. It was also selected as one of the first "Beijing Chinese Language Education Bases" in Beijing.

CNU actively holds international cultural exchange activities. So far, it has established inter-university exchanges and cooperation with 303 universities in 53 countries as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Students from 103 countries and regions are receiving education for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. It has also set up 6 Confucius Institutes, 1 Independent Confucius Classroom and 1 Confucius Classroom Coordination Office In collaboration with Flinders University in Australia, it has cultivated 947 Master of Education students.

The CNU High School and the CNU Yuxin School are experimental bases for school education and teaching reforms and the CNU High School is the first listed key high school and demonstration high school in Beijing.

The CNU is always accords great importance to the Party construction and ideological and political educational work， receiving recognition from various levels of departments including the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council, the Organization Department of the Central Committee, the Publicity Department of the Central Committee, the Ministry of Education, and the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Government.It has been awarded titles such as National Advanced Collective in Poverty Alleviation, Advanced Grassroots Party Organization in Earthquake Relief, Advanced Higher Education Institution in Party Building and Ideological and Political Work, Advanced Unit in Capital's Spiritual Civilization Construction, Model Unit in Capital's Civilized Work, and Capital's Civilized Campus, among others.

With determination and unwavering effort, Capital Normal University will strive to write a new chapter in building a world-class normal university with Chinese characteristics!

Statistics by Mar.1, 2025