The College of Urban and Environmental Sciences (CUES) started from the establishment of the Department of Geology and Geography in 1952, which combined the faculty from the Department of Geoscience at Tsinghua University and the Department of History at Yanking University. In 1978, the Department of Geography was created out of the Department of Geology and Geography, and was renamed the Department of Urban and Environmental Sciences in 1989. CUES was founded on the department of Urban and Environmental Sciences in 2002.

CUES is under the administration of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. Currently, CUES has five departments , including the Department of Environmental Science, Department of Ecology, Department of Resource and Environmental Geography, Department of Urban and Economic Geography, and Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and two centers , including the Center for Historical Geography and the Center for Architecture.

CUES has 70 full-time faculty members including 37 full professors, 22 associate professors, 7 assistant professors, and eight research professors. The full professors, research professors, and associate professors serve as the graduate faculty. Professors in the college are educated or trained by China’s top academic institutions and world-renowned universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Hong Kong. Faculty in the college specialize in a wide range of areas and cover a variety of disciplines, including Environmental science, Ecology, Geomorphology, Physical Geography, Quaternary Geology, Human Geography, Urban Planning, Urban Design and Architecture.

Among the faculty members, two are members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and nine are Cheung Kong Scholars. Two research groups (Environmental Geochemistry and Ecology) have been granted by the NSFC Innovative Research Group Fund and twelve professors have been granted the NSFC National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars.Among the faculty members, 19 professors are serving on the advisory/editorial boards of international peer-reviewed journals.

CUES faculty members have earned a number of honors and awards, including National Award of National Science, National Excellent Teacher Award, Young Female Scientist Award, Chang Jiang Scholars Achievement Award, National Outstanding Planning and Design Award, and The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation etc.

CUES offers five undergraduate degree programs including Environmental Science, Ecological Science, Physical Geography, Human Geography, and Urban and Regional Planning. UES offers eight MS degree programs, including Physical Geography, Human Geography, Historical Geography, Geomorphology, Quaternary Geology, Environmental Science, Urban and Regional Planning, and Ecology, and six Ph.D. programs, including Physical Geography, Human Geography, Historical Geography, Geomorphology, Environmental Geography, and Quaternary Geology. Interdisciplinary studies are strongly encouraged.

The college has a large number of high quality students recruited throughout the country. There are 400 undergraduate students, 200 master students and 200 doctoral students. The College welcomes about 100 new undergraduate students and 90 new graduate students each year. From their second year of college, undergraduate students are free to choose a major from the following concentration areas: Environmental Science, Ecology, Physical Geography, Urban Planning and Human Geography. Graduate students choose degree concentration upon recruitment. CUES also welcomes Post-doctoral research associates to work with professors for two or three years in chosen areas. The college has frequently sent students to study abroad for a certain period of time under the financial support of the Ministry of Education. A large share of graduates from the College enter some world-renowned universities to pursue advanced degrees.