Dr. Weichang Yang

Dr. Weichang Yang is the founder of Beifang International Universities Alliance and Beifang International Education Group, which offers higher education in China and connects students to opportunities to study worldwide. He is a proponent of higher education access and quality across China and an architect of understanding and collaboration between cultures.

Yang was born in Baoding, Hebei Province, and in the early 1990s resigned as a civil servant in a state-owned enterprise to start his own business. In 1991, Yang established the Northern Investment Group Co. Ltd., a large-scale, privately owned and publicly traded investment corporation. There are more than 25 companies affiliated with the NIG, employing more than 20,000 people.

Yang discovered his passion for education when NIG first ventured into the field in 1998, launching an investment Master of Business Administration program. At present, the company has developed into a leading education enterprise with more than 22,000 students in China.

In 2013, NIG, under Yang’s leadership, established the Beifang International Education Group, which is now the largest private higher education institution group in China. The group aims to share resources, improve operations and promote internationalization in higher education. BIEG offers study-abroad programs in Canada, England, Australia and the United States. The Canadian program focuses on green living, creating awareness to living in harmony with nature, values also espoused and taught by Royal Roads.

Beifang International Universities Alliance was also founded in 2013 and has established relationships with more than 300 foreign universities, allowing its students to enjoy some of the world's best educational resources, and to cultivate in-demand applied skills along with international vision and innovative thinking.

Yang holds a PhD in Education from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and an Executive Master of Business Administration from Beijing University. He conducted his doctoral research on private college education. His published scholarship consistently argues for centering teaching quality in higher education.