It is a leading public, co-educational, national key university, located in Beijing, China. Established in 1940 in Yan'an, the university used to be administered by the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND). After COSTIND was merged into the newly established Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in 2008, the university is now under the direct administration of the MIIT. BIT has been a tier-1 research university in China for more than 50 years.