Yuanpei College

A unique and intellectually central component of the Joint Program is the co-ordination with the Peking University Yuanpei College, an initiative to allow 160 students in each class to spend the first two years at Peking University in a liberal arts curriculum before declaring their major. As in most major universities in Asia, Peking University students enter a college department directly from secondary school and take few electives outside their major field of study. One reason that Peking University is so committed to the Joint Program is the desire to enhance the quality of undergraduate education by providing a broader intellectual foundation to the bachelors degree. Thus central to the Program's design was the creation of courses, extra-curricular projects, and a lecture series where students in the Peking Yuanpei College participate fully alongside Yale students.

The Yuanpei College is named after a former beloved president of Peking University, Cai Yuanpei, an outstanding scientist, reformer, and educator who assumed the presidency in 1917.

* Image from http://www.pku.edu.cn/eabout/list-leader.htm