Architecture and Urban Planning

At a Glance

Four Years or Five, and the Degree Word Changes

Architecture and urban planning in China, on this 2027 guide, is a choice about the exit. Students who finish the required courses, the assessments, and the thesis defense receive a Tsinghua bachelor’s. The specific sentence allows a Bachelor of Engineering in Architecture, Urban Planning, or Landscape Architecture after four years, or one more year of the program’s full training for a professional Bachelor of Architecture. Those are not nicknames for the same parchment. If a home architecture board requires a professional degree rather than an engineering degree, ask which of the two sentences that board will read. We will not guess.

The guide does not print a separate tuition for the fifth year. The table says 100,000 RMB per year. A reader who stays five years should budget five of those years until a notice says the fifth is free or cheaper. There is no DragonTrail discount. The freshman scholarship can be full, half, or partial tuition for the first year only, and it is exclusive of another award of the same type. Later years follow Tsinghua’s own scholarship rules. A scholarship is not an extra studio.

English Teaching and a Computing Claim

All instructions are in English. The eligibility note for English-taught programs does not require Chinese. It does require a high level of English, with a test if English is not native. This urban guide repeats that and prints no minimum. Do not borrow IELTS 6.5 from a fine-arts or sinology row. Design teaching, the guide says, has to engage computer science and AI tools. That is a curriculum claim inside an architecture and urban program. It does not retitle the degree as artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence and Data Science is the page where AI is the major name.

The guide also says students customise projects with tutors from different schools, and that China’s urbanisation is part of the teaching site. “Tsinghua graduates are always highly sought after” is a sentence on the page. We quote it as the university’s marketing, not as our employment claim. A portfolio is the gap: many architecture schools ask for drawings, and this guide’s document list is transcripts, exams, and optional olympiad awards. If a portfolio is required, it will be in the upload list or a later note. We did not see it on the guide body.

Who May Apply, and the Hour That Was Still Open

Applicants are foreign nationals with a valid foreign passport, a full-time in-person high-school diploma, and the ministry nationality rules in Document No. 12 (2020), 教外函〔2020〕12号, plus Tsinghua’s 2027 nationality instructions. Age is 18 by 1 September 2027. Younger students bring a guardian guarantee at registration. Academic evidence includes transcripts, a national exam, and examples such as CSCA, SAT, ACT, A-Level, AP, or IB. CSCA is an example, not a sentence that every design applicant must sit it. Originals are reviewed repeatedly. A failed nationality check stops the file.

Round one runs until 17:00 on 20 November 2026, Beijing time, and on 29 October 2026 that hour had not arrived. Round two is printed through 28 February 2027. The comprehensive assessment’s method is “informed in advance.” Admission documents are described for June 2027. Pay 800 RMB only while the live page still shows the hour. The fee is not refundable. The system is apply.join-tsinghua.edu.cn. The mailbox is admissions@tsinghua.edu.cn. Zijing’s own mail is zijsy@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.

A Fine-Arts Architecture Studio Is a Different School

Central Academy of Fine Arts lists architecture and landscape architecture among fields on its global study page, and it prints a bachelor’s tuition of 52,000 RMB a year on that undated HTML. The 2026 international undergraduate brochure is a PDF linked from a page posted 12 November 2025. We did not parse the PDF, so we will not treat 52,000 as the 2026 international architecture sticker. We will not mix it with Tsinghua’s 100,000. Art and Design holds the fine-arts page, including that unread PDF.

Beijing Normal University’s catalog mentions urban-rural planning inside Geographical Science, and design inside the arts school. Those are not this Zijing program. Geography’s planning track uses the closed 2026 Chinese-taught brochure. Do not file a Tsinghua English application because a geography row contains the word planning. Engineering in China is the sibling Zijing guide, where architecture also appears inside a broader engineering list at the same 100,000 RMB year. Same college, two guides. Read the one whose degree sentence you need.

Housing, Insurance, and Recognition

Insurance is 800 RMB a year for the cover the guide describes: basic accidental injury and hospitalization. It does not describe studio injuries, equipment, or outpatient care. Housing is a designated residence hall and an online booking window. The price is elsewhere. We will not copy China Agricultural University’s 1,000 to 1,600 RMB a month into a Tsinghua dorm. Off-campus police registration, if you live out, will be in the admission pack or the center’s rules.

A license to sign drawings is a professional rule in the place you want to work. The guide does not say a Bachelor of Engineering or a Bachelor of Architecture meets any foreign board. Ask that board with the year count and the course list. Five years on this page is still Tsinghua’s professional degree, not an automatic overseas license. Universities and Schools keeps league labels as glossary. The guide’s confidence about careers is not a table we will sort.

Before You Pay 800 RMB

Confirm the exit you want, four-year engineering or five-year professional, and whether the upload list now includes a portfolio. Confirm the tuition cell is still 100,000 a year and that the fifth year is not separately priced. Confirm the 20 November hour. Then decide. A city-walk essay, a sketchbook, and this degree are three different uses of the word architecture. Only the guide produces the bachelor’s.

Send the live PDF if the portfolio line has appeared or the fee has moved. We can read the degree sentence with you. We cannot review drawings, we cannot reserve a studio desk, and we cannot extend the hour. Cost of Studying is rent and daily life after the room rate is published. How To Apply orders ordinary documents. It does not know whether your board wants the fifth year.

Sources

These pages were read on 29 October 2026 (Asia/Shanghai). Tuition, language thresholds, and application windows change, and several dates on them have already passed. Use the current page from the university or ministry that sets the rule.

• Tsinghua University — Zijing College Urban Regeneration and Design admission guide 2027 (page date 2026-09-23) — retrieved 29 October 2026 (Asia/Shanghai)
• Tsinghua University — Zijing College Global Talents in Science and Engineering admission guide 2027 (page date 2026-09-24) — retrieved 29 October 2026 (Asia/Shanghai)
• Tsinghua University — international undergraduate admissions FAQ — retrieved 29 October 2026 (Asia/Shanghai)
• Central Academy of Fine Arts — global study and apply page (tuition table; no intake year on the HTML) — retrieved 29 October 2026 (Asia/Shanghai)
• Central Academy of Fine Arts — 2026 international undergraduate brochure landing page (posted 2025-11-12). The body is a PDF we did not parse. — retrieved 29 October 2026 (Asia/Shanghai)
• Ministry of Education — notice on nationality checks for international students (教外函〔2020〕12号) — retrieved 29 October 2026 (Asia/Shanghai)

FAQ

Related Study Routes

• What To StudySubject fit before a single major’s fee.
• Find a Suitable ProgramHow study routes are organized. Not a seat in this subject.
• Cost of StudyingSeparate tuition, housing, and daily spend before you compare one university’s fee.
• How To ApplyDocuments and the order of a study application.
• Universities and SchoolsSchool names and league labels, read as a glossary.
• Art and DesignFine-arts and design rows, including the CAFA page whose PDF we did not parse.