China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing is a national key university directly supervised by China Ministry of Education, which has been listed into the national “211 Project”, the “985 Project Innovation Platform”, as well as the “World First-Rate Discipline Construction University”. It is also one of the initial member universities for the Strategic Alliance of Industrial Technology Innovation, with its development supported jointly by the Ministry of Education and China’s State Administration of Work Safety. In 1960 and 1978, the university was identified twice as a national key university and was included in the initial list of universities with doctor and master degree conferring authority in its graduate school. The university is now composed of two campuses: Xueyuan Road campus located on Xueyuan Road, the university zone in Haidian District of Beijing, and Shahe campus located in Shahe Higher Education Zone in Changping District of Beijing.

The predecessor of CUMT was Jiaozuo School of Railroad and Mines founded in Jiaozuo, Henan Province in the year of 1909. In 1931, the School was renamed as Private Jiaozuo Engineering College. In 1938, the College moved to West China and merged with the engineering sections in Northeastern University, Beiyang University and Beiping University into National Northwestern Polytechnical College. In 1946, Jiaozuo Engineering College was restored, and then moved back to Jiaozuo in 1949. In 1950 it was moved from Jiaozuo to Tianjin and renamed as China Institute of Mining and Technology (CIMT). During the nationwide restructuring of universities and colleges in 1952, the mining engineering departments of Tsinghua University, Beiyang University and Tangshan Institute of Railroad were merged into CIMT, which established a sound basis for its later development. In 1953, CIMT was moved to Beijing, and renamed as Beijing Institute of Mining and Technology. In 1970, the Institute was moved to Hechuan, Sichuan Province, and renamed as Sichuan Institute of Mining and Technology. In 1978, Beijing Graduate School of China Institute of Mining and Technology was established at the original site of Xueyuan Road in Beijing and resumed enrollment and cultivation of graduate students. In 1988, it was renamed as China University of Mining and Technology, and the great leader Deng Xiaoping inscribed the university’s name. In 1997, the university was renamed as China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing Campus. In 1998, it restored the enrollment of undergraduate students. Since 2000, the university has been under the direct supervision of Ministry of Education. In January 2003, with the approval of the central government, the university started its independent operation under the name of China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing. In 1997, CUMT-Beijing was listed into the national “211 Project”, the “985 Project Innovation Platform” in 2006, and the “World First-Rate Discipline Construction University” in 2017.

The development of this university has received attention and support from successive leaders of the country. Chairman Mao Zedong’s inscription “Develop Mining Industry” encouraged generations of graduates to work hard for the development of mining industry. The great leader Deng Xiaoping’s instructions guided the university to move forward on the road of revitalization under the background of reform and opening up. Former President Jiang Zemin inspected the campus and wrote an inscription to mark its 90th anniversary. Former President Hu Jintao sent a congratulatory letter for the university’s centennial celebration. For more than 100 years, the university has been keeping in pace with the Chinese industrialization process and the development of the country. Generation after generation, the university has created a top brand in higher education in China, formed its unique ethos of “Diligence, Objectivity, Ambition, and Dedication” and a study style of “learn and practice”, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit of working hard and striving to tackle the challenges.

Under the support from government, coal energy industry and other communities, through years of development, CUMTB, now a comprehensive university, has set up a professional system giving priority to engineering among other disciplines of science, liberal arts, management, laws and economy, with mining and safety as its features. It enjoys a high reputation in the areas of mine construction, work safety, surveying, mechanics, IT, ecological restoration, management engineering relating to exploration, development and utilization of coal energy, etc.

Currently CUMTB has 63 specialties for undergraduates, 16 first-grade disciplines conferring Doctor Degrees, 34 first-grade disciplines conferring Master Degrees, 69 second-grade disciplines conferring Doctor Degrees, 163 second-grade disciplines conferring Master Degrees, 12 professional degree authorization categories for Master Degree; one first-grade national key discipline, 8 second-grade national key disciplines, one national key cultivated discipline and 21 provincial key disciplines, and 14 post-doctoral research stations. In the 4th round discipline evaluation of universities and colleges held by Ministry of Education, its specialties of mining engineering and safety science & technology were ranked as A+ Disciplines, maintaining their leading positions nationwide, while surveying science & technology, and geological resource & science were ranked as A- Disciplines, keeping their preeminence in the field. Four disciplines have entered the top 1% of ESI, including engineering, geoscience, material science, and chemistry. Two disciplines, mining engineering as well as safety science and engineering were qualified as “Double First-Rate” construction disciplines.

CUMTB has its first-class faculty composed of 984 teaching and administrative staff members. Among the full-time teachers, there are 175 professors, 226 associate professors; 168 supervisors for doctoral candidates and 230 supervisors for master candidates. More than 79% of them hold doctorates degrees. The university boasts 4 “Plans for Innovative Research Teams”, 1 academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 8 academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 7 special appointed professors by the name of “Cheung Kong Scholar Program”, 4 Chief Scientists of the National “973” Project, 7 winners of the National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation, 12 selected as “New Century Millions of National-level Outstanding Talents”, 44 included in the Ministry of Education’s Excellent Talents Support Program for the new century, 1 winner of the first China Young Scientist Award, 6 entitled as National Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Expert, 3 included in the National Ten Thousand Talents Program, 2 awarded as National-level Excellent Teacher, 16 winners of Beijing Higher Education Excellent Teacher Award, 1 winner of the Young Teaching Masters Award of Higher Education in Beijing, 4 National Labor Medal winners, 5 winners of Sun Yueqi Energy Award, 17 winners of Sun Yueqi Youth Science and Technology Award, 6 winners of China Youth Science and Technology Award, 15 holders of Youth Science and Technology Award in Coal Industry, and 3 winners of National Outstanding Postdoctoral Award.

The university insists on educating people as its basis and makes efforts to establish a superior education and teaching system for energy industry as well as to cultivate high-level talents with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique and aesthetic quality, along with social responsibility, innovative spirit and practical ability. Among CUMTB alumni, many have become scientific research experts, management backbones and leaders in national modernization construction and industry development. It boasts 8 specialties authorized as the first-grade national “University Characteristic Specialty Construction Site”, and 8 specialties authorized as Characteristic Specialty in Beijing. The specialties of Mining Engineering and Safety Engineering have passed the Accreditation for Engineering Education by Ministry of Education. There are also 1 national experimental and teaching demonstration center and 2 national engineering practice education centers. Since 1998, more than a thousand students have won prizes in science and technology contests of provincial level and above both at home and abroad. Eight doctoral dissertations have been evaluated as top-100 nationwide outstanding dissertations. The university now has 7422 full-time undergraduates, 7092 master and doctor graduates, 1149 students from continuing education school as well as 21 international students.

Targeting at its core task of talent cultivation and the strategic demand of the country and the industry, CUTMB has dedicated to the scientific research and innovative capability enhancement and has obtained many brilliant scientific achievements. Since the “10th Five-Year” Plan, the university has won 28 State Science and Technology Awards and a total of 368 provincial and ministerial awards. Its scientific research funds have maintained a momentum of continuous growth with over 3500 scientific research projects in progress. The university has also built mature and advanced scientific innovation platforms, including 2 State Key Laboratories and 2 National Engineering Research Centers, together with 2 engineering research centers listed by Ministry of Education and 2 key laboratories listed by Beijing Municipal Government. In addition, its library has a holding of 898,000 volumes and 2,018,000 E-books.

The university has been proactively playing its advantage and serving its role in talent cultivation of the energy industry, science and technology progress, local economic and social development, as well as pushing forward innovation in production, education and research. The Directors Board of CUMTB was established as a platform to promote social service. A total of 90 energy enterprises have become members of the Board. CUMTB also has China’s first Technology Park with energy and safety features — “Zhongguancun Energy and Safety Technology Park” and “China University of Mining and Technology Overseas Students Pioneer Park”, together with the Research Institute of Energy Safety and Industrial Technology jointly built with Beijing municipal government, forming a system of production-study–research-application and transforming scientific results, which is an important part of Zhongguancun Science Park and Innovation System Construction in Capital Region.

With emphasis on domestic and international academic exchanges and cooperation, CUMTB has been promoting international educational opportunities. Currently it has initialized the founding of “Beijing High-Tech Universities Alliance” together with other 10 high-level universities with industry characteristics, and signed MOU with 45 world-renowned universities and scientific research institutions. At the same time, CUMTB professors have carried out academic exchanges in relevant disciplines with more than 100 renowned foreign universities and scientific research institutions. CUMTB has successfully convened many international academic conferences and acted actively in academic exchanges, for example, the Annual Meeting of the International Coal Petrology Committee, the joint meeting of ICCP-TSOP, the first session of the International Conference of the Safety Behavior and Safety Management, the Annual Meeting of International Society for Organic Petrology (TSOP), the International Symposium on Mining Science and Technology, the International Conference on Ground Control in Mining, and etc.

CUMTB will stick to the guidelines of “developing towards modernization, the world and the future” and follow the overall developing principle of “deepen the reform, enhance features, improve quality, drive innovation and development”, concentrate on the three key points of “overall planning, team building, and scientific management”, make great efforts to promote the construction toward the first-class disciplines and university so as to enhance its overall competitiveness to a new stage, and strive to build it into a featured high-level university with its influence both at home and abroad.