Beijing Normal University was the earliest established teacher-training university in China, which grew out of the Faculty of Education of the Metropolitan University founded in 1902. She was named as Beijing Normal University in 1923.

In the last one hundred years, the faculty and students of the Beijing Normal University, motivated by a strong sense of responsibility for the nation and the people, have strived to live up to the motto of "studying to teach and acting to example" and cultivated a fine tradition of patriotism, progress, honesty, innovation, truth-seeking and being a paragon in virtue and learning. After one whole century's development, BNU has become an important education and research base for multi-disciplines and advanced scientific studies. It cultivated nearly 200,000 talents for China, including many excellent teachers.

BNU was among the first group to be designated as a member university of the "Project 2ll " and became a member university of "Education Revival Project" by the Ministry of Education, which means the university has been receiving financial support from both the Ministry of Education and Beijing Municipality as a key university with her own characteristics and superiorities. In August 2002, the Ministry of Education and Beijing Municipality signed an agreement to support the University to construct a globally influential university.

Beijing Normal University lays great emphasis upon discipline construction, sets up a curricular system with characteristics of teacher training, educational science, pure science and humanities. Currently, the University has 27 schools and departments, 12 institutes. The University pioneers with respect to the number of national key laboratories, bases for science researching and talents cultivation, authorization units for Ph.D., and the average personal academic achievements throughout the country.

Beijing Normal University has taken an active part in international academic exchanges and cooperation with above one hundred oversea universities and international organizations. The field of international exchange and cooperation has expended very quickly.

Beijing Normal University centennial celebration was held in the People's Great Hall. The national leaders attended the celebration, and President Jiang Zemin delivered an important speech. President Jiang Zemin expressed ardent expectation to Beijing Normal University in the lecture.

In the new century, the University sets a goal to reshape herself to be comprehensive in curriculums and research-oriented with distinctive feature, aiming to be well-known and first-class university in the world.