The academy offers Yenching Scholars, selected annually from around the world, with full scholarships for one or two years of study leading to a master's degree from Peking University.

Annually, around 125 Yenching Scholars are chosen through a highly competitive selection process that seeks future global leaders.

Yenching Scholars are "a diverse group of talented young leaders who demonstrate academic excellence, leadership, innovative thought, and a commitment to the betterment of society."

[1] The academy's first cohort of Yenching Scholars were from a number of prestigious universities, with the most numerous coming from Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge, Chicago, Stanford, and Yale.

The available majors are "Politics and International Relations", "Economics and Management", "Law and Society", "Philosophy and Religion", "History and Archaeology", and "Literature and Culture".

Furthermore, Yenching Academy invites leading personalities of diverse fields including art, literature, business, and politics as guest speakers throughout the program.

It features six above-ground heritage buildings and a new ground-level complex which will stretch down multiple stories with access points and skylights throughout the garden.

As a result of the increased competition among full-scholarship leadership programs, there has been marked growth in fundraising, with the endowments moving towards a half billion USD each.

Additionally, the usage of the central Jing Yuan raised protests from students who were against the development of green spaces on campus.

In comparison, the reaction at Tsinghua to the Schwarzman program was rather muted, exemplifying its historical character as a politically correct technocratic school.

[36][37][38][39][40] To do so, the programs will allow both universities to offer more courses bilingually (Chinese and English), while supporting their efforts to attract top students from around the world.

Based on the colleges' endowments, class sizes, and exceptionally low student-to-professor ratios (about 1:1), it is expected that pay for professors will compete with those at top institutions worldwide, such as the Ivy League, on a nominal exchange basis, while top Chinese universities currently pay on par on a purchasing power basis.

Notable speakers included Ken Jarrett, President of the American Chamber of Commerce; Hervé Machenaud, Chief Representative and Chairman of EDF China; Kaiser Kuo, founder of SupChina; He Yafei, former Vice-Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Yuan Ming, Dean of the Yenching Academy.

Notable speakers included Liu Xin, CGTN TV Host, and Susan Shirk, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration.

As China's interaction with the wider international community continues to develop, the two will need to redefine approaches to the world's long-term sustainability challenges.

"(中文: 同舟共济, 再创未来)Designed with global divisions and shared challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic in mind, the theme explored the sub-themes of "Reflection," "Resilience," and "Recovery," incorporating the letters "Re" into the Chinese character 同 in the logo.

Past opening keynote speakers were senior CGTN host Liu Xin, one of the channel's signature anchors, covering many major events in China and around the world.

Other past speakers include author Adeline Yen Mah, Development Reimagined CEO Hannah Ryder, gender and economy researcher Dr. Alicia Giron, former career British diplomat Carma Elliot, and Director of Productions at Twentieth Century Fox Film Xiaoting Huo.