Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, or BIGC, is under the jurisdiction of Beijing municipality, and constructed jointly by the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality and the National Press and Publication Administration of China. Its predecessor—Culture College that was established by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China in 1958—stopped running in 1961, and the Printing Technology Department of the Culture College was merged into the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (now known as the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University).
 

In 1978, with approval of the State Council, BIGC was established on the basis of the Printing Technology Department of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, and governed by the former State Administration of Publishing. In 2000, it was put under the administration of Beijing municipality. After more than 60 years of construction and development, it has developed into a full-time, high-level and specialized institution of higher learning, the only one in China to cultivate talented people throughout the publishing media industrial chain. It has significant advantages and features in three sectors, namely printing and packaging, publishing and communication, design and arts, and coordinated development of engineering, liberal arts, arts and management. It is regarded as a renowned university in the industry.
 

It has four of the first batch of national first-class majors for undergraduates, namely editorial publishing, printing engineering, visual communication design and digital media art; two state-level special majors, two first-class majors for undergraduates that are prioritized in the institutions of higher learning in Beijing, three of the first batch of first-class majors in Beijing, four special majors in Beijing, and has 13 secondary colleges (teaching sectors) and 25 majors for undergraduates open for new students. BIGC improves its core competitiveness by constructing special subjects. It has 12 first-class subjects offering postgraduate programs and is authorized to grant five professional degrees, of which the design science, and journalism and communication are high- grade subjects in Beijing. BIGC has post-doctorate research workstations and is qualified to enroll and cultivate postdoctoral fellows independently. In 2018, it was approved by Beijing to be a university to grant newly-approved doctoral degrees.
 

BIGC is the national base for cultivating high-level talents in publishing and printing, the collaborative innovation base of the national green printing and packaging industries, and Beijing creative cultural ideas talents cultivation base as well. It is the initiator and chairman (or vice-chairman) unit of such societies and associations as the Printing Technology Association of China, China Printing Higher Education Alliance, National Union for Professional Education in Digital Publishing, and National Union for Technological Innovation in Printing Electronics Industry as well.
 

BIGC has established an inter-school cooperation and communication relationship with over 50 universities and research institutes in more than 30 countries and regions, including the U.S. and Russia, and conducted close inter-school exchanges with their faculty members and students. In recent years, BIGC has been actively developing educational programs for overseas students, and enrolls about 300 international students each year on the average, providing talent support for China’s printing and packaging enterprises to develop in the regions and countries along the “Belt and Road.” In 2017, BIGC was selected into the first batch of “Belt and Road” National Talents Cultivation Bases in Beijing, while serving as the secretariat of the bases.