Yale University

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-04-21 23:07

NEW HAVEN, the United States -- Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is on a state visit to the United States from April 18 to 21, is expected to give a speech on Friday at Yale University, the third-oldest higher education institution in the U.S..

Yale University, a member of the Ivy League, was founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School at the home of Abraham Pierson, its first rector, in Killingworth, Connecticut.

The school moved to New Haven in 1716, and with the generous gift from Elihu Yale of nine bales of goods, 417 books, and a portrait and arms of King George I, it was renamed Yale College in 1718. In 1887 Yale College became Yale University.

The university now comprises three major academic components -- Yale College (the undergraduate program), the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and ten professional schools.

It also encompasses a wide array of research organizations, libraries and museums, and administrative and support offices.

Yale currently has some 3,200 faculty members who teach around 5,200 undergraduate students and 6,000 graduate students. The world renowned university has students from more than 110 countries.

The 70 undergraduate majors of Yale are primarily focused on a liberal curriculum, with some 20 percent in the sciences, 35 percent in the social sciences and 45 percent in the arts and humanities.

Many of Yale alumni have become leaders in the political, economic, scientific and cultural fields in the United States and around the world. Among its graduates, five have become presidents of the United States.

Yale also has a long tradition of links with China, and the first Chinese student, named Yung Wing, graduated from the university in 1854.

Currently, Yale has more than 60 cooperation programs with more than 45 educational institutions, research organizations and government departments in 16 Chinese cities.
Meanwhile, Chinese students constitute the largest group of foreign students in Yale, with the number exceeding 600 in 2004.