Renmin University of China is a research-oriented comprehensive university focusing on humanities and social sciences It is directly under the Ministry of Education of China and is jointly financed and supported by China’s Ministry of Education and the Beijing Municipal government. It can be traced back to Shanbei Public School, founded in 1937 in the midst of Anti-Japanese War. Later it became the North China United University, and then North China University. On December 16th, 1949, advised by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the 11thAdministrative Meeting of the National Administration Council passed “The Resolution on the Establishment of Renmin University of China”.
On October 3rd, 1950, the North China University was renamed as Renmin University of China. It was the first modern university founded by the People’s Republic of China. Eminent educationalists Prof. Wu Yuzhang, Prof. Cheng Fangwu, Prof. Yuan Baohua, Prof. Huang Da, Prof. Li Wenhai, Prof. Ji Baocheng and Prof. Chen Yulu were presidents of the university successively. The current President is Prof. Liu Wei. Dr. Jin Nuo is the incumbent Chairwoman of the University Council. After the July 7 incident of1937, the CPC Central Committee decided at the end of July to establish Shanbei Public School to bring up hundreds of thousands of revolutionary comrades to meet the needs of the Anti-Japanese War. In August, 1937, Cheng Fangwu was appointed as the principal and party secretary of Shanbei Public School. Affiliated to the Organization Department and Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, Shanbei Public School practiced the Principal Accountability System under the leadership of the Party and the Youth League. During two years of operation, it educated more than 6000 students and absorbed more than 3000 young people into the Communist Party of China Renmin University main campus is located at No.59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian district, and is less than 5–10 minutes’ drive away from other top schools in the nation, such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Institute of Technology and Beijing Foreign Studies University. It is also only less than 10 minutes away from the Old Summer Palace and Summer Palace. Most schools, departments and institute are currently located at the Beijing campus. The English Corner at Renmin University is very famous in Beijing. Every Friday evening, people gather at the Qiushi Garden near the east gate to practice English.
It is a good place to meet and communicate with the students of the university and the common people of China. Besides, Renmin University is host to about 1,165 international students at present and many of the students are from South Korea. There are so many South Korean students that the International Students Dining Room has a separate Korean menu aside from their traditional Chinese menu.
Renmin University of China has a secondary campus located in Suzhou Industrial Park, in the South-eastern province of Jiangsu.It is home to the RUC Sino-French Institute (IFC Renmin) and its 900 Chinese and international students.Besides, a number of Chinese and sino-foreign Master-level programs from several RUC faculties are also located on the same grounds under the supervision of RUC International College. RUC Suzhou campus is part of the Suzhou Dushu Lake Higher Education Town, together with other international Sino-Foreign oriented graduate and post-graduate schools such as Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool university or the Southeast University-Monash University Joint Graduate School.
Renmin University of China is currently building its future new main campus in the Tongzhou district, currently named "Eastern Campus", to the east of Beijing central area.It will be located in the same town as the soon-to-be relocated Beijing municipal government facilities.Completion date is expected by the end of year 2017.
The former main campus of Renmin University of China is located east to the Forbidden City, in the Dongcheng district. Although it still belongs to the university, it is no longer used for educational purposes..
