As of May 2017, China has around 1200 formally recognised universities, ranging from small private highly specialised institutions through to large, comprehensive universities falling under the direct management of the Ministry of Education (MOE).

 

Australian universities have been active in engaging with a range of these institutions, with the 2016 survey from Universities Australia showing that Australian universities have more than 1,400 formal agreements with Chinese universities, a 200% increase on the number of agreements with China in 2003.
 
In 2015, China announced its largest education development scheme to date - the “Double First-Class initiative”, a plan that aims at increasing the global recognition of China’s university system by 2049 (the 100 year anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China). An implementation plan and list of universities and disciplines were announced in 2017.

 

Prior to introducing the “Double First Class”, China’s top universities were supported under the “985” project and “211” project. The “211” project began in 1995 and saw funding given to more than 100 universities to develop their research standards and capacity, and the “985” project is a subset of the “211” project universities that were given substantial additional funding. 

 

The Double First Class Initiative identifies 42 Universities of having the potential to develop as world class. This includes all of the 39 universities from the “985” project plus 3 former “211”project universities. Furthermore, 465 disciplines from 140 universities (including the 42 universities) have been identified as having the potential to become world class disciplines. This includes all former “211” project universities plus 26 universities that were not part of previous development schemes. 
 
Globally, there are three commonly cited international rankings of world universities – the Academic Rankings of World Universities (or ARWU – formerly known as the Shanghai Jiao Tong Rankings), the Times Higher Education World Rankings, and the QS World Rankings. Chinese universities have been steadily improving their rankings on these international platforms for the past decade. 
 
In addition to the international rankings, there are also a number of rankings produced by organisations within China, focusing on different aspects of university performance. Two of the most highly regarded rankings are those compiled by the Chinese University Alumni Association (CUAA) and the China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Centre (CDGDC – an MOE affiliate organisation).
 
The CUAA compiles Chinese University rankings each year, taking universities’ teaching staff and resources, scientific research level, talent training quality and reputation as indicators, basing the evaluation on a combination of calculation of publicly available data, materials submitted by the institution, and peer review.

 

Table 1 below shows the latest rankings of Chinese universities on the three global rankings, the CUAA ranking as well as their status in the Double First Class initiative.
 
The CDGDC assesses and marks Chinese universities by fields and disciplines, and publishes the result every four years. The assessment is based on four factors: faculty and resources, quality of education, research capacity and contribution to society. The latest result (round 4) was published in December 2017, marking universities with scores from “A+” to “C-” for 95 disciplines in 7 study fields. The Education section has prepared a translated list of assessment outcomes for universities that have been rated “A+” for each discipline:

 

Chinese University Disciplines assessment outcome 2017 (round 4)

 

The full list of assessment outcomes can be found at: http://www.cdgdc.edu.cn/xwyyjsjyxx/xkpgjg/   

 

With the Double First Class initiative subsuming the “985” and “211” projects, Chinese universities are expected to further ramp up development to build capacity and become more globally competitive.  It is anticipated that Chinese universities will continue to improve their performance in international rankings, and, nationally, high ranked Chinese universities are expected to improve their performance in identified discipline areas.

 

University ranking and discipline assessment lists are a useful resource for Australian universities to achieve a better understanding of the strengths of Chinese universities strengths, and assist them to identify and target future collaborations with Chinese universities. 
 
For further enquiries, please contact the Education and Research Section of the Australian Embassy in Beijing.