Founded in 2002, the Department of Urban and Rural Planning was qualified to grant the degree of Master in City Planning in 2002. The department started to recruit undergraduates in 2006 and twice passed the national urban and rural planning education assessment for undergraduates and masters in 2014 and 2018. In 2018, the department was qualified to grant the degree of Doctor in City and Rural Planning and it has become the 14th University of urban and rural planning with doctor's degree authorization centers in China. Developed through nearly 20 years, the Department of Urban and Rural Planning has formed a continuous academic training system that involves undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral study and a Beijing-centered characteristic teaching system. The Institute (Department) has cooperated with Beijing Urban Planning and Design Institute to build a municipal off-campus talents training base. The institute has also established a multi-level school enterprise cooperation mode relying on Beijing University of Technology Planning and Design Institute Co., Ltd. By taking advantage of Beijing’s geographical advantages, the department has continuously expanded international exchanges and joint training with well-known overseas universities. It has established joint training platforms with University of Cincinnati, University of Minnesota, Cardiff University and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. We have organized joint training projects of “external training program”, international student exchange program, and joint teaching of planning and design courses to improve students’ international cooperation and exchange ability. The extracurricular competition has achieved fruitful results and won the first prize of Challenge Cup National Undergraduate Extracurricular Academic Scientific and Technological Works Competition for two consecutive times. Students’ works have won many excellent achievements in Excellent Selecting of Course Assignments titled “Research Report on Comprehensive Practice of Urban and Rural Society in Urban and Rural Planning Major of Colleges and Universities” and “Urban Design” and Innovation and Practice Competition of Urban Traffic and Travel.

There are 31 professional teachers in our Institute (Department), including 7 professors and 8 associate professors. Nearly 90% of them have doctor’s degrees, 80% of them are Ph.D. supervisors and master’s supervisors. Nearly half of them have overseas degrees or more than one year of overseas study or work experience. Some of them hold the academic positions of the directors, secretary-general, chairman and committee members in the academic organizations such as Urban Planning Society of China, Architectural Society of China, Chinese Society for Urban Studies, China Association for Disaster Prevention, Beijing Urban Planning Society and Beijing’s Urban Planning Committee.

At present, the Institute (Department) has focused on serving the major needs of China and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Regionin the field of urban and rural planning and the development of frontier disciplines and has obtained a lot of achievements. Relying on the scientific research platforms of Key Scientific Research Base of State Cultural Relics Bureau including Safety Assessment of Ancient Timber Buildings and Disasters Risk Control, Beijing Research Center for National Condition Monitoring and Urban Assessment, Research Center for Urban Space Planning and Governance, Beijing University of Technology and Research & Promotion Center for Beijing Urban Public Space Promotion. The Institute has formed its own characteristics and advantages in urban safety and disaster prevention planning, village and town planning, heritage protection planning and urban renewal and other fields. In recent years, it has undertaken more than 20 state-level projects such as national science and technology support plan, national key R & D plan, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Social Science Foundation of China, Humanities and Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education, and more than 10 ministry (provincial) projects such as Beijing Science and Technology Plan, Beijing Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing Social Science Foundation of China. It has won more than 20 provincial and ministerial science and technology progress awards and excellent urban and rural planning and design awards; edited and participated in the preparation of more than 10 specifications and guidelines of technical standards; published more than 200 papers and published more than 10 monographs. Its research findings have been widely used in key projects in Beijing's urban and rural planning and social planning including Planning of Beijing’s Sub-Center and Core Area of the Capital , Planning of Beautiful Village& New Countryside in Beijing and the Urban Renewal of Beijing. The Institute has effectively promoted industry progress and created remarkable social and economic benefits.

Main research field:

theory and method of space planning

town planning and design

urban and rural historical heritage protection planning

urban and rural security and disaster prevention planning

sustainable urban design and urban renewal

ecological planning and landscape design