Peking University, Beijing, March 3rd, 2009: The Ministry of Education dispatched a formal message, approving Peking University’s Department of Psychology as a “National Science Basic Research and Education Training Base.”

The “National Science Basic Research and Education Training Base” is an act made by the government to promote the training of science persons. With much devotion, this program has brought up many outstanding science research and education personnel.

In the past, the Department of Psychology (DOP) has always highly valued their undergraduate education. Recently through course construction strengthening, paying attention towards importing talents etcetera, the country now has a gifted recruit of people who can fill in the needs in the scientific field. The DOP takes in around forty undergraduate students each year.

In the areas of course construction strengthening, other than being the leader in fields of experimental psychology, abnormal psychology, physiologic psychology and cognitive neuroscience, the DOP is also the only psychological institution in the country that is able to perform in-depth research on primates. In 2001 Basic Psychology was approved as National Key Subject.

Since 2001, the DOP has recruited around ten people both national and international, doubling the previous teaching staff number. This recruiting of talented teaching force has greatly improved the quality of education and student training.

The undergraduate students are usually assigned professors starting as early as their sophomore year to guide their direction of research work. Some students have already reached research levels high enough to publish their results in academic journals. Between 2004 and 2008, the undergraduate students from the DOP have published around eighty papers, of which 18 were from the SCI, 5 from SSCI and 7 in the EI.

The DOP has taught more than nine hundred undergraduates since Psychology was approved as a national key subject. In the future, the DOP will rely on being a “National Science Basic Research and Education Training Base” and continue to improve the quality of training and work towards building a world first-class university.

Edited by: Wang Yi

Translated by: Connie Chang