China Agricultural University (CAU), directly subordinated to the Ministry of Education, is a Key National University entering the State 985 Program and the State 211 Program. QU Zhenyuan is the Chair of the University Council and CHEN Zhangliang is the President.
As the origin of higher agricultural education, China Agricultural Univer-sity 's history could be traced back to 1905 when the College of Agricult- ure was founded in the former Jingshi Da Xuetang. The Beijing Agricul-tural University (BAU) was established in September 1949 by merging of Peking University 's College of Agriculture , Tsinghua University 's College of Agriculture and North China University 's College of Agricult-ure. The BAU was listed by the State Council as one of the Top-Six Key National Universities as well as one of the Top-Ten Key Univer-sities for further construction and improvement. In October 1952, BAU's Department of Agricultural Machinery, North China College of Agricultural Machinery and Ministry of Agriculture's Central Agricultural Mechanizat- ion School merged together to form the Beijing Mechanized Agricultural College, which was renamed Beijing Agricultural Mechanization Institute (BAMI) in July 1953. The BAMI was listed by the State Council in Oct. 1960 as one of the 64 Key National Universities and then renamed again as Beijing Agricultural Engineering University (BAEU) in 1985.
Approved by the State Council, BAU and BAEU merged together to form the China Agricultural University (CAU) in September 1995. Jiang Zemin caligraphied CAU's name in Chinese for CAU. Premier of the State Council Wen Jiabao gave a significant speech to CAU during his inspect-ion tour on 4 May 2003 . Vice Premier of the State Council Hui Liangyu also inspected some of CAU's labs, talked to CAU leaders, professionals and students, and delivered an important statement.
All CAU staff and students experienced once again the kind attention and expectations by receiving a handwritten message of congratulations from Premier Wen Jiabao on the occasion of CAU's Centennial Celebrat-ion on 1 July 2005.Member of the State Council Chen Zhili herself congra-tulated CAU for the one-hundred-year of anniversary and took an official inspection tour to CAU. The CAU's Centennial Celebration and the World Agriculture Conference were convened in the Great Hall of People on 16 September 2005 .
It was CAU's great honor in receiving a message of congratulations from CPC Secretary-General Hu Jintao. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, entr-usted by Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, participated in the grand Celebra-tion marking the event a successful story in CAU's history. The Chair of the National People's Congress Standing Committee Wu Bangguo paid an inspection visit to CAU on 13 October 2005 . With one-hundred years of history, CAU has developed itself as a comprehensive university with agriculture as its distinguished feature and advantage. It covers a wide range of disciplines on a complementary basis, such as agriculture and life science, resources and environment, information and computer science, agricultural engineering and automation science, economic management and social sciences, etc. Currently, CAU is composed of 13 colleges involving in nine categories of agronomy, engineering, science, economics, law, literature, medicine and philosophy. In addition, CAU also has a Graduate School and a School of Continuing Education. Speaking educational sector, CAU owns 19 Key State Disciplines, 15 Key Ministerial Disciplines and ten Post-Doctor Working Stations. A number of key labs were also established in CAU including three Key State Labs, 22 Key Ministerial Labs, four State Research Centers , ten Ministerial Research Centers and five Innovative Research Teams.
CAU is proud of having a strong and highly qualified faculty team with 1,398 members in total. Among whom, there are five Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and five Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 351 professors, 598 associate professors, nine specially-invited professors, two guest professors, 25 young faculty members supported by the State Science Foundation for Outstanding Young Professionals and 39 faculty members financed by the Ministry of Education Program for New Century Excellent Professionals. CAU also invited a number of world-known scholars including Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug as CAU Honorable Professors and Guest Professors.
CAU has so far established a complete and harmonized system for BSc, MSc and PhD education. CAU has been authorized to award the following academic degrees: 12 PhD Grade I, 71 PhD Grade II, 23 MSc Grade I, 136 MSc Grade II, and 61 BSc. Among which, two disciplines, i.e. Biology and Chemistry, has been listed in the State Fundamental Science Research and Education Bases. CAU has always attached great attention to improve educational quality, actively promote educational reform and initiate new patterns for high-quality and innovative educational practice.
CAU has today 15,891 undergraduate students enrolled, 3,355 and 2,065 postgraduate students registered for MSc and PhD degrees, respectively. The CAU Post-Graduate Working Station has 95 post-doctorial researchers. In addition, CAU also has 2,262 and 139 post-graduate students working on MSc and PhD degrees in specialized field, respectively. The number of students registered in School of Continuing Education and those for distance education reaches 35,093.
CAU has constructed itself as a research-oriented institute in order to better serve the country and the world by using its rich and highly qualified personnel resources. Attention has been paid to fundamental researches with focus on high-technologies in the fields of agriculture and biology aiming at applied prospects significant to national economic development. In year 2005 alone, CAU was awarded three times for State Prize and 25 times for Ministerial Prize.
CAU has always attached great importance to initiate international programs and activities on exchange and cooperation with foreign countries in order to continue its open policy, to speed up the pace of CAU's internationalization and to promote CAU's reputation world-wide. CAU has successfully established international cooperation programs with more than 20 counties and regions, including United States , Germany , Canada , England , Netherlands , Denmark , Japan , RO Korea, Thailand , Australia , New Zealand , Russia , Ukraine and Israel , and signed reciprocal agreements with more than 60 world famous universities. Hundreds of foreign scientists and specialists are invited to give lectures and exchange research progress. CAU has well established the following institutions to satisfy the needs in the field of international education and cooperative research: Sino-German Center for Integrated Agricultural Development, China-Japan Training Center for Farm Machinery Maintenance, Chinese-Israeli International Center for Research and Training in Agriculture , China- Japan Research Center for Agriculture and Livestock Management.
Cultivation of students' comprehensive personality is a key area for education in CAU. Off-class education activities are widely organized in this regard. The CAU Student Personality Development Plan is being formulated. A diversified and colorful campus life attracts all the students with active participation of faculty and staff members. CAU has more than 70 students' associations/ teams covering a wide range of cultural and social activities, such as politics, economics, culture, science and technology, theory, practice and volunteers. Well organized student teams include Chorus Team, Western Music Team, National Music Team, Dancing Team, Modern Dance Team, Rugby Team, Mountaineering Team, etc. The Chorus Team has win twice of the Beijing Award Grade I and performed once in the State Library Music Hall with success. The Rugby Team is the first one composed in mainland in China 's history and has win many times of international competitions for China . CAU students actively participate in science and technology innovative activities and won the First Award of the State College Student Academic Masterpiece of Work.
URL: www.cau.edu.cn
