The Communication University of China (CUC) () is a leading public university in Beijing. It is one of the China's key universities of 'Double First Class University Plan', directly administered by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. CUC developed from what used to be a training center for technicians of the Central Broadcasting Bureau that was founded in 1954. In April 1959, it was upgraded to the Beijing Broadcasting Institute (BBI) () approved by the State Council. In August 2004, BBI was renamed Communication University of China. CUC is located in the eastern part of Beijing near the ancient canal, which occupies 463,700 square meters of land and a total of 499,800 square meters of buildings. History CUC's history dates back to March 3, 1954, when the first training class for broadcasting professionals was held by the then Central Radio Administration. This then led to the founding of Beijing Broadcasting College in 1958. On September 7, 1959, CUC's precursor Beijing Broadcasting Institute (BBI) was established. During the ensuing four decades, BBI remained a relatively small college and only known among the circles of Chinese media professionals. On August 19, 2004, the State Council of the People's Republic of China approved the renaming of the institute to the Communication University of China. It has now developed into a comprehensive institute of higher learning with broadcasting, film production, journalism, drama, animation, advertising, newscasting, creative cultural industry, Communications engineering, foreign languages (especially minority language), management and media law education as its major academic disciplines. Academics Overall academic situation CUC upholds its ideology of offering courses that are centered on scientific based learning by emphasizing the application of a course and relevance to the particular discipline. As a result, an inter-relating and inter-influencing discipline system that covers journalism and communication, film and television arts, information science and technology, literature, engineering, management, economics, and law and science has been formed. There are currently six faculties that consist of one co-innovation center and five directly affiliated schools, which comprise two national key disciplines (journalism and radio and television arts). There is also one national key cultivation discipline (communication), three Beijing municipal key disciplines (journalism and communication, art theory, theater film and television), four Beijing municipal key subordinate disciplines (linguistics and applied linguistics, communications and information systems, electromagnetic field and microwave technology, animation), seven post-doctoral research centers, seven doctoral programs, 35 doctoral programs