Rankings of Chinese universities
06 Mar 2009
At present there is no official ranking of Chinese universities. A useful indicator of a university’s quality, however, is whether it is included on the Project 211 list initiated by the Chinese government.
This project, which initially aimed to cultivate around 100 top universities in China, now covers a total of 107 universities so far. These institutions are to play a critical role in training high-level professionals to develop and strengthen a number of key scientific and academic disciplines in the 21st century.
The project will make a significant contributing to improving China’s higher education, economic progress and development in the fields of science, technology and culture - ultimately enhancing China’s overall international competitiveness.
Areas for development
Project 211 centres on three major areas for development: overall institutional capacity, key disciplinary areas and the public system of higher education.
211 universities were initially selected on the basis of academic merit and administrative and political considerations. Each province and special ministry, including the army, were invited to contribute one of its affiliate institutions for inclusion on the project list, with the result that almost all provinces and regions are represented.
General independent specialist commission evaluations of Project 211 institutions take place every five years.
Project 211 list
211-universities host 84% of all PhD graduates, 69% of all Master’s students and 32% of all Bachelor’s students in China; in addition, 96% of all State Key Laboratories and 88% of the State Key Disciplines are housed at 211 universities.
Project 211 universities receive 72% of all university research funding in China.
Download the detailed Project 211 list (10 kB)
Ranking
Rankings of Chinese universities are also published by a number of independent researchers, newspapers and private organizations, each of whom apply their own evaluation standards.
The most widely used is the Ranking List of Chinese Graduate Schools (China Statistics Press), compiled by Professor Wu Shulian, and based on such factors as reputation, academic resources, academic achievements, teaching quality, teaching resources and hardware. For many parents and students, this list serves as a helpful reference when choosing a university.
Chinese Graduate Schools
The top ten universities on the 2008 Ranking List of Chinese Graduate Schools list are:
1 清华大学 Tsinghua University
2 北京大学 Peking University
3 浙江大学 Zhejiang University
4 上海交通大学 Shanghai Jiaotong University
5 南京大学 Nanjing University
6 复旦大学 Fudan University
7 中国科技大学 University of Science and Technology of China
8 华中科技大学 Huazhong University of Science and Technology
9 武汉大学 Wuhan University
10 西安交通大学 Xi’an Jiaotong University