Beijing Information Science and Technology University (BISTU) is a leading higher educational institution administered by Beijing Municipality. As a multi-disciplinary university focusing on undergraduate and postgraduate education with a complete set of disciplines in information technology and a distinctive feature in information technology, BISTU was the merger of Beijing Institute of Machinery Industry (BIMI, supervised by the former Ministry of Machinery Industry) and Beijing Institute of Information Technology (BIIT, supervised by the former Ministry of Electronics Industry). Starting from Peking Advanced School of Business and Trade established in 1937, Beijing Institute of Machinery was established in 1958 and renamed Beijing Institute of Machinery Industry in 1990 (administered by the then-Ministry of Machinery and Electronics Industry). The Second Branch School of Peking University was established in 1978 and renamed Beijing Institute of Information Engineering (administered by the then-Ministry of Electronics Industry) in 1985. The year 1997 saw establishment of BIIT based on Beijing Institute of Information Engineering. And in 2008 BISTU was formally established with the merger of BIMI and BIIT.
Undergraduate education commenced at BISTU in 1958 and postgraduate education in 1981. The first post-doctoral research workstation was approved in 2018 and BISTU was officially approved to confer doctoral degrees in 2021. The post-doctoral research mobile workstation on Instrumentation Science and Technology was approved in 2023. As of today, BISTU has built a comprehensive, multi-layered educational and talent cultivation system covering full-time undergraduate programs, postgraduate programs, doctoral programs, continuing educational programs, and international educational programs.
Five campuses of BISTU, i.e., Shahe, Xiaoying, Jianxiangqiao, Jintailu, and Jiuxianqiao, cover an area of 810k square meters and offer services for 14 second-tier teaching units. BISTU has 11,019 full-time undergraduate students, 3,091 full-time postgraduate students, 58 full-time doctoral students, and 137 international students. With a history of 87 years, BISTU has been always rooted in China and has been growing along with development of national machinery industry and computer science while making indelible contributions to national defense cause. Distinctive features of the University thus were formed in respect of information technology, industries, and military industry. “Diligence in learning and honor for life”---the University Motto ---has been rooted here and carried forward from generation to generation to all corners of the world.
Remarkable successes in party building lead the University to a new journey of development. The Party’s leadership over all issues of the University has been comprehensively strengthened. Holding onto socialist school-running orientation and the principle of cultivating talents for the Party and our nation, BISTU lays focus on serving national and municipal development and realizes in-depth integration of party building, ideological and political education, and educational cause of the University. The Party’s leadership is reflected and implemented in the whole-process and all areas of governance and education. Recent years have witnessed BISTU’s endeavor in promoting national strategic development and serving the goal of building Beijing into four centers, i.e., the nation’s political center, China’s cultural center, China’s center for international exchange, and an international innovation center. As a winner of Capital Labor Medal, the University seizes the crucial opportunity of development of high-grade, precision, and advanced industries and takes initiative to contribute to the new development paradigm of Beijing and our nation, demonstrated in a series of events including construction and relation of Shahe Campus, building a complete system of talent cultivation covering undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral education, and winning support from both State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and Beijing Municipality. BISTU now embarks on a journey of steady growth.
With a featured philosophy of education, BISTU has been making constant improvement in quality of talent cultivation. BISTU adheres to the principle of fostering virtue through education and is dedicated to nurturing talents who have moral integrity, strong hand-on skills, innovation awareness and international horizon. It now offers 45 undergraduate programs, including 14 state-level first-class programs, 4 state-level featured programs, 17 municipal-level first-class programs, 9 municipal-level featured programs, 3 programs listed in MOE Planning for Engineering of Excellence, 9 programs accredited for engineering education by China Engineering Education Accreditation Association, and 2 MOE Pilot Programs of Academic Reform in Local Universities. All academic disciplines of the University are embedded with “Information plus & Intelligence plus” and are covered in Double Ten Thousand Plan (10,000 first-class undergraduate courses at national level and 10,000 courses at provincial level). In addition to 10 modules appraised as state-level first-class ones, 24 textbooks of the University have been included in national 11th Five Year Plan and 12th Five Year Plan. Industry-education integration is strengthened and cultivation of hands-on skills and innovative competence is highlighted. Currently, the University boasts 2 state-level model centers for experiment teaching, a state-level off-campus field teaching base, a state-level field teaching center for engineering, a state-level educational base for innovation and entrepreneurship, and a first prize of Beijing municipal educational achievements awards. And it tops other municipality-administered universities in terms of the number of awards in China College Students’ “Internet +” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, i.e., winning bronze medals for six years in national finals. Moreover, BISTU is rated A+ in National University Robotics Competition Index (remaining top 2% for years). Salary level of BISTU fresh graduates stays top 40 among over 3,000 higher educational institutions in China.
Priority is given to professional ethics of teachers and faculty team is constantly optimized. The reasonably structured, quality faculty team of BISTU is composed of 1,061 full-time academic teachers, of whom 73% are doctoral degree holders and 63% are professors or holding senior professional titles. Of all faculties, 53 are Ph.D. supervisors and 509 are mater supervisors. The faculty has 1 selected to Ten Thousand Talent Program, 3 listed in State New Century Talent Project, 2 screened out and listed in State-level Young Talent Project, 1 awarded National Excellent Teacher, 7 entitled to Special Government Allowances of the State Council, 3 Beijing Scholars, 1 Beijing Young Scholar, 2 honored Municipal Talents of Outstanding Contributions in Science, Technology, and Management, 4 as current MOE members of Teaching Steering Committee in Higher Educational Institutions, 3 selected to Beijing Municipal New Century Talent Project, 4 listed in Beijing Municipal Talent Project, 21 outstanding teachers of Beijing-based universities, 30 faculties being honored as role models of teachers’ professional ethics, pioneers in teachers’ professional ethics, and educators of excellence, and 11 faculties being granted Municipal Labor Medal or Advanced & Pioneering Individuals of Educational Institutions in Beijing. World's Top 2% Scientists sees 8 faculty members of BISTU on the list. And altogether 35 faculty teams receive state-level or municipal-level honors, such as National Teaching Team of Excellence, Huang Danian-style Faculty Team in Universities of China, MOE “Yangtze River Scholar and Innovative Team”, Municipal Teaching Team of Excellence, Team of Strategic Science and Technology in Beijing, Municipal Team of Excellence in Moral Education, etc..
Strengths in academic disciplines are constantly being boosted with focus on cross-disciplinary research and the urgent demand of Beijing and the nation. The University has 1 post-doctoral research mobile workstation, 1 first-tier academic discipline entitled to confer doctoral degrees, 13 first-tier academic disciplines entitled to confer master degrees, and 7 professional master degree programs. It is eligible for recommending exam-exempted graduates to master programs. In the best disciplines of 2023 ShanghaiRanking, 6 disciplines of BISTU were listed among top 50% of China. Two academic disciplines are appraised as high grade, precision and advanced disciplines of Beijing Municipality and another high grade, precision and advanced discipline is a joint achievement with other institutions. Academic disciplinary paradigm of the University is being continuously optimized. Now all undergraduate programs are gaining sufficient support from academic disciplines and all first-class undergraduate programs from academic disciplines with strengths.
Based on increasing competence in scientific and technological innovation, BISTU takes a strong proactive approach of engaging in national development strategy and meeting the demand of high grade, precision, and advanced industries in Beijing. Five areas with research strengths are taking shape. Six major projects on science and technology have been promoted. BISTU’s annual average R&D funding has exceeded RMB 200 million Yuan for three years in a row. Among 34 key provincial labs/research centers/bases of the University, there are 3 MOE key labs, 1 Beijing lab, and 6 municipal key labs. In 2023, BISTU became a first-cohort member of the Alliance for Cross-disciplinary Media Convergence led by State Key Laboratory of Media Convergence Production Technology and Systems of Xinhua News Agency to jointly build Data Intelligence Innovation R&D Base. Efforts have been invested in commercialization and application of scientific and technological achievements. BISTU is listed in Concept Validation Platform for Scientific and Technological Achievements of Beijing and becomes a pilot institution in Beijing for reform of appraisal of scientific and technological achievements. Commercialization has also been achieved in the field of high-end software and sensing technologies. Total assets of BISTU holdings exceed 900 million Yuan. The recent three years have seen BISTU being granted 396 invention patents and 8 awards of provincial level or higher in science and technology.
Forging ahead in the new era on the journey to the future, BISTU views political building as the overarching principle and the “double first-class” project as the orientation. BISTU will ground its work in this new stage of development, fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy, and integrate into a new paradigm of development. Quality and potential-based development, featured development, and differentiated development will be boosted to achieve our objective of building a high level university of applied learning with distinctive feature in information technology.
(Data as of 22nd March 2024)
