Education in Beijing includes information about primary and secondary schools in Beijing.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education is the local education authority."Beijing Municipal Commission of Education ." eBeijing/Beijing International (organized by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology and the Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government, authorized by the Beijing Municipal Government). Retrieved on 10 January 2014.
The institutions listed here are administered by China's Ministry of Education.
History
Beijing education starts in preschool, where children learn intellectual and motor skills through fun activities and games. The second 'level' of education is primary school, where students attend from ages 6 to 12. In Beijing secondary schools, students either follow an academic path or a vocational path. If students choose the academic path, they usually stay in secondary school for 3 years from the ages of 13 to 16, while students who choose the vocational programme will stay in secondary school for 3 to 4 years from the ages of 13 to 16/17.
Just prior to the 1949 founding of the People's Republic of China, Beijing had 13 institutions of higher education, 76 secondary schools, 358 primary schools including those public and private, and 21 nurseries and kindergartens. Of the secondary schools, 80% were private. At the time, 47% of all primary school-aged children in Beijing attended school. Dong Jianhong and Chen Tiying, the authors of "Urban Education in Beijing: An International Perspective," wrote that there were few schools located in poor neighborhoods.Dong and Chen, p. 121. Dong Jianhong and Chen Tiying wrote that "education in Beijing lagged far behind" that of the rest of the country prior to the founding of the People's Republic.
Dong Jianhong and Chen Tiying wrote that education in Beijing "developed rapidly" after the 1949 founding. The municipal government established additional higher education facilities, acquired and reorganized schools, established new schools in lower class and working class areas, lowered age limits in the school admission policies, and decreased cutoff scores on achievement tests for working class children during the years 1949 through 1957. Departments of education were established for the Beijing municipality and each of the Beijing districts in 1954.
Dong Jianhong and Chen Tiying wrote that in the Great Leap Forward period school activities were not focused on education and instead were "mostly devoted to political movements and productive labor" which produced a low educational quality. During the period many schools established school-operated factories that their students worked in, and the Beijing educational authorities established part-work part-study experimental schools and work-study programs.
The authorities opened many senior secondary schools and closed many part-study, part-time, and vocational schools during the Cultural Revolution.
In 1986 the starting age for primary education for urban children was changed from 7 to 6.Dong and Chen, p. 123.
Demographics As of 2011, about 30,000 senior high school students resident in Beijing did not have Beijing hukou and attended senior high schools in the cities and towns where their hukou was registered instead of Beijing.Liu Jinsong (刘金松). "Beijing To Pupils: "Get A Hukou!"" ([ Archive]). Nation (经济观察网) at The Economic Observer. September 6, 2011. Translated into English by Zhu Na. Retrieved on June 23, 2015. Original Chinese: "开学季 分别季" - Date of original: August 29, 2011.
Research and Innovation Beijing is a world-leading center for scientific and technological innovation. It has been ranked the No. 1 city in the world with the largest scientific research output, as tracked by the Nature Index since the list's inception in 2016. When compared to countries, Beijing ranked above Germany, securing third place worldwide after China and the US, according to the Nature Index for 2025. For example, Beijing's share of the 2024 Nature Index is 5,501.45 with 11,915 counts, while Germany's share is 5,000.90 with 10,559 counts. The capital also leads the world with the highest share of articles published in natural sciences, physical sciences, chemistry, and earth and environmental sciences, especially in the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-related output. As of 2024, it stands as the most prolific scientific research center in biological sciences and health science in the Asia-Pacific, ranking third and sixth in the world, respectively.
Universities and colleges Beijing has over 90 public colleges and universities, making it the largest urban public university system in Asia and the first city in China with the most higher education institutions. It is also home to the two best universities (Tsinghua and Peking) in the whole of the Asia & Oceania region and emerging countries, with their rankings at #11 and #13 places in the world, respectively by the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Both are members of the C9 League, an alliance of elite Chinese universities offering comprehensive and leading education.
Beijing also has the highest number of universities of any city in the country, representing more than one-fifth of 147 Double First-Class Universities, a national plan to develop elite Chinese universities into world-class institutions by the end of 2050. According to the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking for 2026-2027, Beijing has the highest number of universities among major cities in the world included in the ranking, totaling 31, with 2 institutions in the top 20, 7 institutions in the top 200 and 12 institutions in the top 500. For the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2026, Beijing has 2 universities in the global top 25, 5 in the top 150, 11 in the top 300, and 16 institutions in the top 500.
A number of Beijing's most prestigious universities consistently rank among the best in the Asia-Pacific and the world, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, China Agricultural University, Minzu University of China, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, University of International Business and Economics, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Central University of Finance and Economics. These universities were selected as "985 universities" or "211 universities" by the Chinese government in order to build world-class universities.
The capital is a seat of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has been consistently ranked the No. 1 research institute in the world by Nature Index since the list's inception in 2014. The academy also runs the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is located in Beijing and ranked among the world's top five research institutions by the Nature Index. Beijing is also a site of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Some of the national key universities in Beijing are:
Beijing Forestry University Beijing Jiaotong University Beijing University of Technology Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing Language and Culture University Beijing Sport University Central Conservatory of Music Central Academy of Fine Arts Central Academy of Drama China University of Geosciences (Beijing) China University of Petroleum (Beijing) China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) China University of Political Science and Law China Foreign Affairs University Chinese People's Public Security University China Women's University China Youth University for Political Sciences China Institute of Industrial Relations Communication University of China North China Electric Power University Peking Union Medical College University of International Relations
Beijing is home to the largest international students population in China and one of the major destinations for foreign students in the Asia-Pacific region. Many international students from Japan, Korea, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere come to Beijing to study every year.
As of 2011, according to the Beijing Educational Committee, 700,000 students attend universities based in Beijing. Of those students, according to the committee, 15-20% come from families classified as being in poverty. As of 2011 the municipal government had pledged 50 million yuan ($7.3 million U.S.) as an addition to its funds for assisting university students in poverty.
The first university dedicated for ethnic minority students in Beijing is the Minzu University of China, or the Central University of Nationalities (CUN), established in 1951.
"Moral education" at the university level is integrated into other subjects. Ethnic minorities in Beijing have a higher than average educational attainment at the tertiary level compared to the national average for ethnic minorities. As of 2011 10.8% of ethnic minorities in Beijing have obtained university degrees compared to 0.9% nationally.
Beijing is also home to several religious institutions, Some of them are listed as follows: China Islamic Institute (中国伊斯兰教经学院) Beijing Islamic Institute (北京伊斯蘭教經學院) The Buddhist Academy of China (中国佛学院) High-level Tibetan Buddhism College of China (中国藏语系高级佛学院) National Seminary of Catholic Church in China (中国天主教神哲学院)
Primary and secondary education
The Beijing municipal government has made efforts to provide a nine-year compulsory education. Several experts, including the Beijing Normal University education specialist Binxian Zhang, have argued that Beijing should make twelve years of education compulsory.
As of June 2010 the Beijing government allowed 75 local public and private schools to teach foreign students. The Beijing Education Commission began accrediting these schools as such in 2003. Foreign students must not make up over 10% of the student body and they must receive instruction in classes with Chinese students. Schools are eligible to receive foreigner students if they were in existence for 10 or more years, had an English-speaking staff member managing foreign student issues, and have training in teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Leung, Sarah. "Beijing schools get thumbs up." South China Morning Post. Saturday 10 June 2010. Retrieved on 3 October 2015.
Beijing's compulsory education system is among the best in the world: in 2018, 15-year-old students from Beijing (together with Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu) outperformed all of the other 78 participating countries in all categories (math, reading, and science) in the Program for International Student Assessment, a worldwide study of academic performance conducted by the OECD.
Statistics on schools As of 2003 Beijing had 1,430 kindergartens, 1,652 primary schools, 730 secondary schools - including 263 combined lower and upper secondary (junior and senior high), 401 lower secondary, and 66 upper secondary - 97 vocational secondary schools, 62 secondary specialty schools, and 74 institutions of higher education. That year there were 199,390 kindergarten students, 546,530 primary school students, 453,446 lower secondary students, 250,959 senior secondary students, 84,262 vocational students, 116,725 secondary specialty students, and 450,789 higher education students.