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Universities in China DirectoryIndependent · built from published lists

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How to check that a university in China is on the Ministry of Education's list

Sources checked · Unofficial summary

China's Ministry of Education publishes a national list of higher education institutions. The current edition is dated 17 June 2026 and counts 3,196 institutions. If a university in mainland China is on that list, the list gives its Chinese name, institution code, administering body, location and level.

What the 2026 list counts

The Ministry's announcement gives these totals as of 17 June 2026:

Type Number
All higher education institutions 3,196
Regular higher education institutions 2,952
of which undergraduate-level institutions 1,412
of which higher vocational (junior college) institutions 1,540
Adult higher education institutions 244

The announcement states that the list does not include institutions in Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan.

What the list records for each institution

The list of regular institutions is published as a spreadsheet, arranged province by province. Each row has seven columns:

Column in the list Meaning
序号 Running number within the province
学校名称 Name of the institution, in Chinese
学校标识码 Institution code
主管部门 Administering body, such as the Ministry of Education or a province
所在地 Location, normally a city
办学层次 Level: undergraduate (本科) or junior college (专科)
备注 Remarks

The list is in Chinese only. It does not give English names, websites, fees or programmes.

How to look a university up

  1. Find the university's name in Chinese. Its own website shows it, and each university page in this directory gives it under the English name.
  2. Open the Ministry of Education's list page and download the first attachment, the list of regular higher education institutions.
  3. Search the spreadsheet for the Chinese name. Check that the location and administering body match what the university says about itself.

Names matter. Several universities share most of a name and differ by a place in brackets, such as China University of Petroleum (Beijing) and China University of Petroleum (East China). The list treats them as separate institutions with separate codes.

Location is one place per institution

The list records one location for each institution. A university can run campuses in other cities, and the list does not show them. It also files each institution under one province. In a few cases the province heading and the recorded location differ: Hebei University of Technology is filed under Hebei Province with Tianjin as its location.

What being on the list does and does not mean

Being on the list means the Ministry of Education counts the institution as a regular higher education institution in mainland China at the stated level. The list says nothing about whether an institution accepts international students, which programmes it teaches in English, or what it charges. Each university publishes those details itself.

The list is reissued. Institutions are renamed, merged and added between editions, so use the current edition on the Ministry's website.

Questions

How many universities are there in China?

The Ministry of Education's list counts 3,196 higher education institutions in mainland China as of 17 June 2026. Of these, 2,952 are regular institutions, including 1,412 at undergraduate level, and 244 are adult higher education institutions.

Does the list include universities in Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan?

No. The Ministry's announcement states that the list does not include institutions in Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan.

Is the list available in English?

No. The list of regular institutions is a spreadsheet in Chinese, so you need the university's Chinese name to search it.

Does being on the list mean a university accepts international students?

No. The list records name, code, administering body, location and level. It does not say whether an institution admits international students. Each university publishes that itself.

Sources, checked 11 October 2026:

Directory Desk