Tianjin University - History

History

In 1895, Sheng Xuanhuai submitted his memorial to Guangxu Emperor to request for approval to set up a modern higher education institution in Tianjin. After approval on October 2, 1895, Peiyang Western Study School was founded by him and American educator Charles Daniel Tenney and later developed to Peiyang University. It was the first Chinese university providing 4 year degree modern higher education. The university modeled itself on the famous European and American institutions of higher learning and aimed to rejuvenate China by training qualified personnel with new scientific and technological knowledge. In 1951, after restructuring, Peiyang University was renamed Tianjin University.

Peiyang University—Tianjin University contributes greatly to the Chinese higher education. In its early days, undergraduates had the right to directly pursue graduate study at Harvard or Yale without any entrance exams. Its Law School, which is the first (and also the best at that time) Law School in modern China, was merged into Peking University and gave Peking University a fresh new start. Peiyang's Department of Aeronautics was separated and developed into Beihang University. And The Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, University of Science & Technology Beijing, Tsinghua University and Nankai University also have kin relationship with Tianjin University.