China University of Petroleum, Beijing

China University of Petroleum, Beijing, has been enrolling international students since 1994. Aiming to cultivate professionals with an international outlook and strong competence, the university has made significant efforts and achieved great progress in improving the quality of education and expanding student enrollment over the years. The College of International Education was officially established in 2017 better to promote international student education and international communication and exchange. It bears overall responsibility for promoting international education, recruiting international students, and administering international student programs.

China University of Petroleum (CUP) was founded in 1953, designated as one of the key national universities in 1960, and is a '211' project university managed by the Ministry of Education. As a top-tier national university, CUP’s mission is to train qualified engineers and provide exceptional technical services to the global oil industry through high-quality education and distinguished research.

CUP leads in the petroleum and petrochemical disciplines in China. According to ESI statistics up to September 2025, CUP ranked in the top 1% globally across nine disciplines: Engineering, Chemistry, Geosciences, Materials Science, Ecology, Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics, and General Social Sciences. Based on the petroleum industry structure, CUP has established a discipline framework featuring dominant fields such as Oil & Gas Engineering and Geological Resources & Geological Engineering, supporting disciplines like Chemistry, Material Science, and Engineering, as well as emerging interdisciplinary areas like Unconventional Oil & Gas, New Energy, and Offshore Oil & Gas Engineering.

CUP places great importance on international exchanges and cooperation. Through its internationalization strategy, it continuously promotes international collaboration, thereby increasing its global influence in higher education. It maintains extensive academic and industrial partnerships with over 170 universities and companies worldwide. Additionally, it has established 13 international joint institutes in collaboration with renowned universities and corporations, and founded a Confucius Institute in partnership with San Francisco University in Quito, Ecuador. In 2018, CUP launched the Worldwide Energy University Network (WEUN), which now includes 31 member universities from 17 countries, such as China, the USA, the UK, Canada, Germany, and France. 

In response to the Belt and Road Initiative, it has built cooperative ties with more than 60 universities and institutions from Belt and Road countries. It was selected to participate in the Belt and Road Scholarship Program for international students in Beijing and the Belt and Road National Talent Training Base Program in Beijing in 2017. The same year, it was approved to join the Chinese Government Scholarship-Silk Road Scholarship Program, followed by the Chinese Government Scholarship-China-Africa Friendship Program and China-Africa Friendship General Scholar Program in 2019.