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Located on the west side of Beijing, Minzu University of China (MUC) is generally recognized as the most prestigious institution of higher learning for the education of ethnic minorities in China, and is considered the “cradle of senior professionals of Chinese ethnic minorities.” It is the only institution of higher education that enjoys priority support from the national government through both 211 and 985 projects.
The forerunner of Minzu University of China is the Institute for Nationalities founded in Yan’an in September 1941. The Central Institute for Nationalities (CIN) was formerly established in June 1951, with Council vice premier Mr. Ulanhu as the founding president. In 1993, the name of the Institute was changed into Minzu University of China.
Till May 1966 since its founding, the national leaders, including Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, had received the faculty and student representatives of the Institute on fourteen occasions; after 1978, Mr. Deng Xiaoping received the faculty and students on three occasions. When CIN was renamed in 1993, the former President Jiang Zemin personally contributed his Chinese calligraphy for the new title “Minzu University of China”. On the occasion of MUC’s fiftieth anniversary in 2001, former Premier Zhu Rongji visited the university and proposed on behalf of the National government a new development goal for MUC: “To develop MUC into a world-class university for ethnic education”. In June 2002, SEAC, MOE, and Beijing Municipal People’s Government signed the Collaborative Agreement on “Joint-Construction of Minzu University of China”, which promoted a new level for the development of the university.
After more than sixty years of development, MUC has become a comprehensive research university with humanities as its main focus and ethnic studies as its unique characteristic, providing a full range of courses in literature, history, philosophy, economics, administration, law, science, engineering, medicine, education and multiple levels of education such as bachelor education, master education, ministerial leaders training, ethnic minority pre-foundation education, art secondary schooling, and further education. At present, MUC has twenty-three schools, and five departments, with fifty five undergraduate programs, sixty-seven master degree programs and twenty-five doctoral programs. The broad range of studies at MUC, covering all aspects of ethnicity is widely recognized internationally and new courses are continually being developed to meet the demands of a thriving society.
The history of Minzu University of China is inspiring, and its prospects are encouraging. All members of the university are ready to meet the challenge of developing MUC into a world-famous, high-quality research-intensive university with unique characteristics.