Tsinghua University
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| Tsinghua University | |
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| 清华大 | |
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| Motto: | 自强不息, 厚德載物 (Self-discipline and Social Commitment) |
| Established: | Founded in 1911 |
| Type: | Public |
| President: | Gu Binglin (顾秉林) |
| Faculty: | 2,857 |
| Undergraduates: | 13,788 |
| Postgraduates: | 17,998 |
| Location: | Beijing, People's Republic of China |
| Campus: | Urban, 405.9 ha |
| Flower: | Redbud and Lilac |
| Colors: | Purple and White |
| Website: | www.tsinghua.edu.cn English |
Tsinghua University (THU; simplified Chinese: 清华大学; traditional Chinese: 清華大學; pinyin: Qīnghuá Dàxué), is a university in Beijing, People's Republic of China. It is regarded as one of the best and most selective universities in China. Established in 1911 as a preparatory school for Chinese graduates pursuing further studies at American universities, the school expanded and offered four-year undergraduate and post-graduate programs in 1925. The preparatory program continued until 1949.
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[edit] History
Tsinghua College (清華學堂 Qīnghuá Xuétáng) was established in Beijing, China in 1911 on the site of a former royal garden belonging to a prince, and was funded by the Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship Program which consisted of money from indemnities which China paid the United States after the Boxer Rebellion. It was first a preparatory school for students later sent by the government to study in the United States. The faculty members for sciences were recruited by the YMCA from the United States and its graduates transferred directly to American schools as juniors upon graduation.
In 1925, the school established its College Department and started its research institute on Chinese Study.
In 1928, the authority officially changed its name to National Tsing Hua University (NTHU).
During the Second World War in 1937, Tsinghua University along with Peking University and Nankai University, merged to form Changsha Temporary University in Changsha, and later National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming of Yunnan province. After the war, Tsinghua moved back to Beijing and resumed its operation.
After the communist victory at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 which led to the creation of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Tsinghua University's President Mei Yi-Qi, followed by some professors, went to Taiwan where they established the National Tsing Hua Institute of Nuclear Technology in 1955, which later became National Tsing Hua University of Taiwan.
In 1952, China government regrouped the country's higher education institutions in an attempt to build a Soviet style system, with individual institutions tending to specialise in a certain field of study. Tsinghua University was disassembled, losing its law school, school of agriculture, school of sciences and humanities, and became a polytechnic engineering university. Even so, Tsinghua University remained in the top tier schools in China (Most Chinese scholars believe that its only rival is Peking University). In many years following this regroup, the school was often referred to as the "MIT of China"[1][2][3]. But since the 1980s, the university began to incorporate a multidisciplinary system. As a result, a lot of schools were built and rebuilt. These included the School of Sciences, School of Economics and Management, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Law, School of Public Policy and Management, and the Academy of Arts and Design.
During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the university became a battlefield between different sects of Mao's Red Guards and a stronghold of the radicals. It did not resume its normal operation until 1977 when the Cultural Revolution officially ended.
Since its establishment, the university has enjoyed rich government funding and policy support which greatly improved its facilities. From 1978 Tsinghua re-establishes the departments in sciences, economics, management, and the humanities. Both Tsinghua undergraduate and graduate schools have been recognized nationally, ranking first in the National Evaluation of Graduate Schools.
[edit] Present
Most Chinese university rankings place Tsinghua first in China. It attracts the most talented students of the nation and enjoys the best engineering and applied sciences programs in China, occupying a position similar to Berkeley, MIT, and Stanford in the US. Peking Union Medical College of Tsinghua University [4] is likewise regarded as the best medical school in the country.
Admission to Tsinghua is highly competitive. The majority of selected students are national scholars and among the brightest high school graduates in the country. Many of China's top scientists, engineers, politicians and business leaders are among Tsinghua alumni. The current Chinese president, Hu Jintao, is a former Tsinghua student who graduated with a degree in hydraulic engineering in 1964.
As of 2003, Tsinghua University had 12 colleges and 48 departments, 41 research institutes, 35 research centers, and 167 laboratories, including 15 national key laboratories. In September 2006, Peking Union Medical College was renamed to Peking Union Medical College, Tsinghua University[5]. The university offers 51 bachelor's degree programs, 139 master's degree programs and 107 Ph.D. programs. Recently, Tsinghua has become the first Chinese university to offer a Master of Laws program in American law, through a cooperative venture with the Temple University Beasley School of Law. The university is a member of LAOTSE, an international network of leading universities in Europe and Asia. Each year, the University celebrates the Intellectual Property Summer Institute in cooperation with Franklin Pierce Law Center of Concord, New Hampshire.
On April 12, 2007, Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management became the first business school in the Chinese mainland to earn AACSB accreditation. Former Premier Zhu Rongji was the founding dean of the school.
The University's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology is on a separate campus in a northern suburb of Beijing.
Tsinghua is the Chinese university where former United States Vice President Al Gore lectured at in his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Viewers can see the university lecture hall, with its well-known purple seats.[citation needed]
[edit] Campus
The campus of Tsinghua University is located in northwest Beijing, in the Haidian district which was designated for universities.
It is located on the former site of Qing Dynasty royal gardens and retains some Chinese-style landscaping as well as some traditional buildings, but many of its buildings are Western-style reflecting the American influence in its history. It is known throughout China for having one of the most beautiful campuses.
The university's architect T. Chuang, a 1914 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, modeled his designs for the quadrangle and auditorium of Tsinghua on the Illinois campus, specifically imitating Foellinger Auditorium, located on the quad at the University of Illinois.[1]
[edit] University traditions
[edit] Tsinghua Alma Mater
Tsinghua's early alma mater (school anthem) was composed by an American instructor Miss Katherine E. Seelye:
Tsing Hua College Song
- O come and join our hearty song,
- As proudly here we stand;
- For Tsing Hua College let us sing,
- The best in all the land.
- We'll spread her fame and win a name,
- And put our foes to shame,
- If you don't agree, come on and see,
- And you will say the same, the same,
- And you will say the same.
- O Tsing Hua, fair Tsing Hua,our College bright!
- May we be loyal to the Purple and the White.
- O Tsing Hua, fair Tsing Hua, our College pure,
- We are loyal, We're faithful, we stand for you.
In 1923, another version of the school alma mater with lyrics in Chinese (by Prof. Wang Luan Xiang, a Chinese language professor of Tsinghua) was composed by Mrs. Zhang Hui Zhen and was well received by the students and faculty. The song was then adopted as the school's official Alma Mater.
[edit] Anniversary and Homecoming
The last Sunday of April is Tsinghua's anniversary and Homecoming (Xiao-Qing) Day.
[edit] School flowers
[edit] School colors
Purple and White
[edit] Tsinghua Fight Song
Cheer for old Tsinghua
Tsinghua must win.
Fight to the finish,
never give in.
You do your best, boys,
we'll do the rest, boys.
Fight for the victory, Rha, Rha, Rha!
The school cheer goes: Ri-ri-ri, Rah-rah-rah! Tsinghua, Tsinghua, Tsinghua ! Rah-rah-rah!
[edit] People associated with Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University has produced many notable graduates, especially in political sphere.These include current president Hu Jintao, current vice president Xi Jinping, current head of the National People's Congress Wu Bangguo, former premier Zhu Rongji, former executive vice premier Huang Ju. Tsinghua also has two Nobel Prize winners, Tsung-Dao Lee and Yang Chen Ning. The latter is currently residing on Tsinghua campus.
[edit] Association of Chartered Certified Accountants partnership
Tsinghua University has signed agreements with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the renowned international accountancy body that offers the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification worldwide, to train professional accountants in China. Under the agreement, Tsinghua will develop the programme that under ACCA's syllabus for enabling China's accounting students to join the ACCA professional exam scheme at a higher level. Tsinghua will also recognise the Oxford Brookes University BSc Applied Accounting degree, which has been successfully developed in conjunction with ACCA and which enables students who have completed two parts of the ACCA qualification to apply for the Oxford Brookes degree.[6]
[edit] See also
- National Tsing Hua University
- Peking Union Medical College, Tsinghua University
- Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology
- Anti-Corruption and Governance Research Center
- High School attached to Tsinghua University
- Tsinghua clique
- Qinghuayuan
- Wudaokou
- SMTH BBS
- Education in the People's Republic of China
- List of colleges and universities in Beijing
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- (Chinese) Home Page
- (English) Home Page
- (English) Tsinghua University Library
- (Chinese) Tsinghua University News
- (English) Tsinghua University News
- (Chinese) Tsinghua Alumni Association in Beijing
- Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua University
[edit] Alumni associations
- Tsinghua Alumni Association in Beijing
- Tsinghua Alumni Association of Northern California
- Tsinghua Alumni Association of Greater New York
- Tsinghua Alumni Association of Boston
- Tsinghua Alumni Association of Georgia (USA)
- The Nashville Tsinghua Club
- Silicon Valley Tsinghua Network (SVTN)
- Tsinghua Alumni Association in Germany
- Tsinghua Alumni Association in Singapore
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