OUR HISTORY

Established in 2009, the Faculty of Education (FOE) at Beijing Normal University is a renowned national leader in advancing knowledge and learning through teaching practices, research projects and public services in education and related fields. Her origins can be traced back to the 1902 founding of the Normal College of the Imperial University of Peking, later renamed Beijing Normal University (BNU). FOE came into being when BNU decided to elevate her subject of education to a world-class discipline and recreate the landscape of education in China by merging all the education schools and institutes into a single entity. Therefore, FOE was grounded on the exceptional success of the specialty of education at BNU, which was the first in China to award master’s and doctoral degrees in education, found post-doctoral scientific research mobile stations, and get the authority to award doctoral degrees in education as a first-level discipline. The missions of FOE are to improve the quality of educational innovation nationwide, to educate and prepare professional teachers and future educators, to house the think tank in education, to offer opportunities for International educational exchange and to facilitate the building of the educational and cultural industry in China.


FACULTY AND STUDENTS

FOE is a premier education school to nurture future academic talents. She enjoys a strong and reputable team of faculty members. At present, FOE has 208 professorial and teaching staffs, 90% of whom are qualified at doctoral levels, including 87 full-rank professors and 80 associate professors. As an integral part of FOE, our student body is made up of 627 undergraduates, 668 full-time master’s students, 238 full-time doctoral students, 135 Ed.M. (summer program) students, 49 Ed.D. students, and 100 students in English-taught programs, with a total enrollment of 1817 students. To help our students become effective teachers, FOE provides rigorous academic training and professional mentoring to help our students become effective teachers, educators or leaders, making sure that our students achieve maximum benefits from the educational experience and can leave FOE with knowledge, creativity, competence and skills when they graduate.


DEGREE PROGRAMS

From its founding, FOE continues to play a dominant role in the field of education in China. She offers a vibrant array of high-quality degree programs in education research and practice, including 13 doctoral programs (National Key Disciplines), 15 master’s programs and 5 undergraduate programs, among which Special Education and Educational Technology are highlighted by the Ministry of Education.

LEADING ACADEMICS

With excellence in academia as its goal, FOE has actively served as a productive research center for China’s educational studies. FOE consists of 13 academic institutions, including Institute of Education Theories, Institute of International and Comparative Education, Institute of Education History and Culture, School of Educational Technology, College of Education Administration, Institute of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Institute of Teacher Education, Institute of Education Economics, Institute (Department) of Early Childhood Education, Institute (Department) of Special Education, Institute of Vocational and Adult Education, Institute of Higher Education, and Institute of Educational Psychology and School Counseling. These institutions shoulder the responsibilities of breaking new ground for educational research, nurturing graduates of distinction, enhancing academic structures and providing public services, etc. FOE also sponsors various highly regarded and rigorously peer-reviewed academic journals, including Comparative Educational Research, Education Journal, Teachers’ Education Research, and Chinese Teachers, which seek to disseminate China’s educational philosophy and present the achievements of the latest scientific research in the field of education.


RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

FOE serves to inform educational policy-making at national level and has exerted great impacts during the process. FOE is home to 17 inter-disciplinary centers, such as the Research Center of Comparative Education (National Research Base of Humanity and Social Science) (RCCE), the Research Center of Teachers Education (National Research Base of Humanity and Social Science) (RCTE), the MOE Project Research Center in SET E-learning and Educational Public Service Center (RCEEPS), and UNESCO International Research and Training Center for Rural Education (IRTCRE), just to name a few. These research centers produce cutting-edge research on national issues in education and develop solutions to challenging and pressing problems facing education.


GLOBAL PRESENCE

FOE is a high-end hub for international academic exchange. Up to now, FOE has signed bilateral or multilateral agreements with over 30 renowned universities worldwide. It has established the International Network of Educational Institutes (INEI) along with other 9 top education schools in the world as one of the organizers. Each year, FOE sponsors numerous high-level international conferences and invites more than 200 distinguished scholars to lecture. Moreover, FOE is the first school at BNU to offer the international master’s programs (courses taught in English), which have attracted a large number of international students and have served as a source of inspiration and global outlook for students.

Dean ZHU Xudong