Education department and organization of education in China in the late Qing dynasty (late XIX<sup>th</sup> - beginning of XX<sup>th</sup> century)
The article focuses on the history of Education department (Xuebu), the first centralized education affairs office in the Chinese Imperial history, which was established in 1905 as a major result of the western-style reforms of the previous decades. The new body was engaged in the implementation of a unified education policy, reform of educational structures in the capital and provinces, unification of methodological bases of the Chinese education. The author concludes that the steps taken to modernize the educational system of China were very effective and contributed to the accumulation of new topical and practical knowledge in the country that were of great importance for the successful implementation of the national policy on strengthening of the state under colonialism.