Supported by the Chinese and French ministries of education and co-established by Beihang University and Le Groupe des Ecoles Centrales (a group of five central schools in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Nantes and Marseille), the Sino-French Engineer School of Beihang University (l'École Centrale de Pékin in French, hereafter abbreviated as the School) has enrolled students since 2005. It aims to cultivate international engineers by introducing the French engineering education system and by leveraging Beihang University's strengths in aeronautics, astronautics, and communications.

Now part of both Beihang University and Le Groupe des Ecoles Centrales, the School is jointly governed by a board comprising representatives from Beihang University as well as its partner universities and corporate partners. Since it is a pioneer in the Sino-French higher education cooperation on engineering, the School has been selected among the first group by the Chinese Ministry of Education to join its Program for Training Outstanding Engineers. It has also become China's first institution to receive accreditation by CTI (Commission des titres d'ingénieurs) and EUR-ACE (Accréditation des formations d'ingénieurs en Europe), thus qualifying it to award the French engineering degree (diplôme d'ingénieur). The School has initiated the establishment of both a Sino-French Educational Cooperation Alliance and an Alliance of Beijing Universities in a Program for Training Outstanding Engineers, with the former involving 17 universities across China and the latter 16 universities in Beijing. It has also established the French Studies Center, a national-level research base for studying regions and countries, and an international base for innovation and training in industrial science and technology.

As a platform for cultivating global talent, the School will continue to uphold its core philosophy — development, openness, cooperation, and mutual benefit. It aims to become a world-class institution for training international engineers and to play a guiding and exemplary role in the reform of China's higher engineering education. This will be achieved through a plan to develop model international programs within universities, which will be aligned with world-class certification and training systems.

The School has built a distinguished international faculty team, currently comprising 16 French administrative staff and resident instructors, supplemented by more than 60 visiting professors each year. The Chinese faculty contingent includes 45 members, with 22% holding full professor positions and 53% at the associate professor level.

For its French preparatory program covering mathematics, physics, and industrial sciences, the School has developed integrated Sino-French teaching and research teams. These collaborative groups work jointly on curriculum design, pedagogical innovation, and teaching capacity building. Through team-teaching approaches that leverage complementary strengths, faculty members effectively support students' adaptation to bilingual education.

Furthermore, the School engages over 200 additional faculty members from various university-wide science and engineering disciplines, who support its educational model and contribute to graduate-level training initiatives.