University of California, Berkeley + Tsinghua University
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California · 1 relationship
Historical relationship
Research Center · 2014–2025
Tsinghua University
Beijing, Beijing · 1 relationship
Analysis
UC Berkeley, Tsinghua University and the Shenzhen municipal government signed the agreement creating the Tsinghua–UC Berkeley Shenzhen Institute in September 2014, building on a 2012 university partnership. The institute was designed as a joint research and graduate-education platform, initially organized around nanotechnology and nanomedicine, low-carbon and new-energy technologies, and data science and the next-generation internet. [1]
The founding model joined faculty and graduate students across the two universities, allowed participating students to spend up to a year at the partner institution, and contemplated jointly supervised theses and dissertations. In 2016, the partners announced a dual-degree program under which students would study for 2.5 years toward engineering and science master's degrees from Berkeley and Tsinghua; Berkeley later described TBSI as a graduate-level institute for transdisciplinary and translational research. [1] [2] [3]
The Shenzhen government funded the institute's research and education activity in Shenzhen, while Berkeley stated at launch that its own campus activities would be supported by donors. The agreement preserved each university's ability to negotiate intellectual-property rights and required compliance with both countries' export laws, making research governance an explicit part of the partnership from the outset. [1]
Berkeley began unwinding the relationship in 2024 and said it would relinquish ownership after concerns were raised about research security and Berkeley's lack of oversight over work performed solely by non-Berkeley personnel. By April 2025, Berkeley said it was no longer affiliated with TBSI; this record therefore treats the bilateral partnership as terminated even though Tsinghua's Shenzhen programs may continue independently. [4] [5]
References
- 1.UC Berkeley and Tsinghua University launch research and graduate education partnership
- 2.Berkeley, Tsinghua mark partnership's progress
- 3.Breaking new ground for TBSI
- 4.US-China research has given Beijing's military technology a boost, House GOP says
- 5.Trump administration opens investigation on UC Berkeley over foreign funding
Participants
Continue through either entity
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California · 1 record in this database
The University of California was created in 1868 from a state constitutional vision for public higher education, and Berkeley’s official history presents the campus as an institution with more than 150 years of milestones, discoveries and public impact. Its historical record includes the admission of its first 17 women in 1870 and the establishment of the student-run Daily Californian in 1871 [1].
UC Berkeley’s official student census counted 33,122 undergraduates and 13,029 graduate students in fall 2025. For the most recently completed academic year, 2024–25, the campus reported 9,338 bachelor’s degrees, 4,279 master’s or professional degrees and 821 doctoral degrees. The same institutional-research source reported 97% one-year retention for fall-2024 freshmen and 96% for fall-2024 transfer entrants [2].
Berkeley’s identity also includes a strong free-expression tradition. The university says the Free Speech Movement began in 1964 when students protested restrictions on political activity on campus; large demonstrations followed, and the university overturned policies restricting the content of speech or advocacy. Berkeley’s official history separately highlights contributions ranging from wetsuits and malaria treatment to earthquake science [1] [3].
Beijing, Beijing · 1 record in this database
Tsinghua University was established in Beijing in 1911 as Tsing Hua Imperial College, initially as a preparatory school for students sent to study in the United States. [1] The university section began in 1925, and the institution adopted the name National Tsing Hua University in 1928, with schools in liberal arts, law, science and engineering. [1]
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Tsinghua moved to Changsha in 1937 and joined National Peking University and Nankai University in a temporary university. [1] The institution moved to Kunming in 1938 as National South-West Associated University and returned to its Beijing campus in 1946; the official history records five faculties and 26 departments at that point. [2]
The nationwide restructuring of higher education in 1952 turned Tsinghua into a multidisciplinary polytechnic university specializing in engineering education. [1] From 1978 onward, it expanded teaching and research in sciences, economics and management, humanities and law; the university established a graduate school in 1984, merged with the Central Academy of Arts and Design in 1999, and incorporated the Graduate School of the People's Bank of China as a finance school in 2012. [3]
Tsinghua now describes itself as a comprehensive research university with 21 schools and 59 departments covering science, engineering, literature, arts, history, medicine and other interdisciplinary fields. [2] Its official materials emphasize research-based learning, global engagement and the development of solutions to social and scientific problems; the university's campus and administrative identity remain centered on Tsinghua Garden in Beijing. [1] [2]