In the spring of 1948, the CPC Central Committee decided to merge North China United University and Northern University into North China University. This merger was to expand the scale of higher education to cultivate a large number of cadres for the forthcoming national liberation. Northern University was founded inborder areas of ?Shanxi,Hebei, Shandong, and Henan provinces in November 1945. It was the then largest institution of higher education with relatively wide range of disciplines found by the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China and the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Area Government. Fan Wenlan was appointed as university president. The Northern University adopted the Principal Accountability System. It consisted of the School of Administration, School of Finance and Economics, School of Education, School of Engineering, School of Medicine, School of Agriculture, and the School of Arts.

Northern University had cultivated more than 1000 professional talents in all fields in two years.

On August 24, 1948, the North China University was founded, with the campus located in Zhengding County of Hebei Province. The North China University was under the leadership of the North China Bureau of the Communist Party of China. Wu Yuzhang was appointed as president; Fan Wenlan and Cheng FangWu as Vice President; Qian Junrui as Secretary of the University Party Committee. The North China University adopted the Principal Accountability System. The university consisted of four faculties and two colleges. Political training programs made up the first faculty. The second faculty was the Faculty of Education where middle school teachers and cadres in the field of education were cultivated. The third faculty was the Faculty of Literature and Art for educating cadres in the field of literature and art. The fourth faculty was the Faculty of Research for cultivating research talents and university teachers. The two colleges were Agriculture College and Engineering College.

In April 1949, the North China University was moved into Beiping, recruiting 15000 students. Two branch campuses were set up, one in Zhengding and the other in Tianjing. At the end of 1949, most of the students graduated from the University.. At that point, the North China University had accomplished its historic mission of training cadres for the liberation of New China.

The North China University gave birth to institutions of higher learning of various types in New China. In 1948 and 1949, in order to adapt to the development of culture and education, some affiliations broke away from the university. After the separation, Engineering College developed into the Beijing Institute of Technology; the Agriculture College was merged with the College of Agriculture of Peking University and the College of Agriculture of Tsinghua University into Beijing Agricultural University. The foreign Languages Department of the second faculty of North China University merged with the Beiping School of Foreign Affairs, giving birth to the Beiping School of Foreign Languages, which is now known asBeijing foreign Studies University. The third faculty left the university, split, and developed into the Central Academy of Drama, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the East China Branch of Central Academy of Fine Arts (later Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts), the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing People’s Art Theatre, the China Youth Art Theatre, the China National Opera House, the Beijing Opera Research Institute of China, ect.

From August 1948 to the end of 1949the North China University had cultivated 19194 cadres for China, making important contributions to the liberation of the Chinese people.