Graduate education at the Academy began in 1954. By 1965, over 210 graduate students had been enrolled and trained, though no degrees were conferred during this period. Graduate education was suspended for ten years from 1966 to 1976. In 1978, the Academy resumed graduate enrollment. It was among the first institutions approved by the State Council to confer doctoral and master’s degrees, and one of the few institutions authorized to conduct self-administered entrance examinations and recruit students from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. The first Academic Degree Evaluation Committee of the Academy was established in 1982. Master’s degrees were conferred for the first time that same year, followed by the first conferral of doctoral degrees in 1985, marking a new chapter in the history of graduate education at the Academy. The Graduate School was established in July 1986 to provide unified leadership over degree programs and graduate education across the Academy. In October 1996, it successfully passed the qualification assessment conducted by the Office of Academic Degrees under the State Council for 33 graduate schools and was officially accredited.

The University is among the first group of “Double First-Class” universities and one of the first institutions nationwide authorized to confer both doctoral and master’s degrees. Its disciplines include Biology, Basic Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Pharmacy, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Nursing, and Biomedical Engineering, spanning five disciplinary categories: Medicine, Science, Engineering, Management, and Philosophy. Currently, the University has 12 academic degree-granting programs  (including 7 first-level doctoral degree authorization points, 3 first-level master’s degree-granting programs, and 2 second-level master’s degree-granting programs) and 11 professional degree-granting programs (including 4 doctoral professional degree-granting programs and 7 master’s professional degree-granting programs). The University currently hosts 5 Ministry of Education First-Class Construction Disciplines: Clinical Medicine, Pharmacy, Biology,

Biomedical Engineering, and Public Health and Preventive Medicine. It also has 2 national key first-level disciplines, 8 national key second-level disciplines, 2 national key third-level disciplines, and 1 national key cultivation discipline; additionally, there is 1 Beijing High-Precision and Cutting-Edge Discipline, 4 Beijing municipal key first-level disciplines, 3 Beijing municipal key second-level disciplines, 1 Beijing municipal key third-level discipline, and 1 interdisciplinary program. A total of 17 ESI (Essential Science Indicators) disciplines rank in the global top 1%. Notably, Pharmacology & Toxicology ranks in the global top 0.01%, while Clinical Medicine, Molecular Biology & Genetics, Immunology, Biology & Biochemistry, and Microbiology all rank in the global top 0.1%.

The Academy boasts a large contingent of experts and professors with extensive experience, high academic standing, and outstanding contributions in the fields of medicine and health sciences. There are currently 28 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and 273 national-level distinguished scholars. The faculty includes 1,340 doctoral supervisors and 1,279 master’s supervisors. The University now hosts 11 National Key Laboratories (leading the construction of 8 and participating in 3), accounting for one-sixth of all National Key Laboratories in the medical and pharmaceutical sector—the highest number among all medical universities in China. It also operates 5 National Clinical Research Centers, 15 other national-level research platforms, and 72 provincial- and ministerial-level research platforms.

Relying on 35 graduate training institutions distributed across the country, the Academy has established a comprehensive, multi-tiered, and diversified talent cultivation system operating under a two-level management structure comprising the Academy headquarters and its affiliated institutes and hospitals.

The Academy currently has nearly 10,000 full-time enrolled graduate students. After years of development, the Academy has preliminarily built itself into a premier training base for high-end innovative medical professionals, featuring complete disciplinary coverage, robust supervisory capacity, solid research foundations, and an integrated model encompassing medical practice, education, research, and industrial application.