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Universities in China DirectoryIndependent · built from published lists

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Comparing universities in China without a ranking: discipline, place and administering body

Sources checked · Unofficial summary

No official source ranks universities in China, so there is no official answer to which university is best. The official documents do let a reader compare three things: whether a discipline is printed for a university in the second-round Double First-Class annex, the place and administering body recorded for a university in the national list of higher education institutions, and the rules that place majors and enrolment plans with each university. This directory's section page explains how to check a university against these lists.

This page is a reference guide for international students and families. The English is this site's translation of Chinese texts. The notice, the annex and the national list are in Chinese, and the Chinese text prevails if they differ.

The Double First-Class annex: discipline

The annex is annex 1 to a notice of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission (教研函〔2022〕1号), dated 9 February 2022. Its title is 第二轮“双一流”建设高校及建设学科名单. Paragraph 1 of the notice says the list was recognised by an expert committee, and that the three ministries studied it and reported it to the State Council for approval. The annex is ordered by school code, as its title says.

Paragraph 2 of the notice says that 北京大学 and 清华大学 determined their construction disciplines themselves and published them on their own.

Counting the entries of the annex, this directory finds 147 institutions. Two institutions have no disciplines printed. The other 145 institutions have 433 discipline entries between them, covering 97 different discipline names. These are this directory's counts, not figures printed in the annex, and they are not a quality score.

The annex prints no categories. The table below groups the discipline entries by the category of the Ministry's discipline catalogue. The grouping is this directory's count. The English category names are this directory's renderings, not official translations.

Category (Chinese, English rendering) Discipline names Discipline entries
哲学 (Philosophy) 1 6
经济学 (Economics) 2 11
法学 (Law and social sciences) 6 17
教育学 (Education) 3 9
文学 (Literature and languages) 3 15
历史学 (History) 3 7
理学 (Natural sciences) 14 93
工学 (Engineering) 36 179
农学 (Agriculture) 9 25
医学 (Medicine) 9 43
管理学 (Management) 5 16
艺术学 (Arts) 5 11
交叉学科 (Interdisciplinary) 1 1

Counted by this directory from the entries of the annex.

The national list: place and administering body

The Ministry's national list page gives the position as of 17 June 2026. It records 3,196 higher education institutions in total. Of these, 2,952 are regular institutions: 1,412 undergraduate and 1,540 vocational and junior college. The page records 244 adult institutions. The page says the list does not include institutions in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Attachment 1 of the national list, the list of regular institutions (全国普通高等学校名单), has seven columns:

  • 序号 (serial number)
  • 学校名称 (institution name)
  • 学校标识码 (institution code)
  • 主管部门 (administering body)
  • 所在地 (place)
  • 办学层次 (level of schooling)
  • 备注 (remarks)

The 所在地 column gives the place. The 主管部门 column gives the administering body. No column is headed for a ranking, for a discipline list, or for international students.

Confirm each fact against the current official list, because the national list is updated.

Majors and enrolment plans: where they are set

Article 10 of Order No. 42 (2017) says that institutions independently determine enrolment plans and majors for international students, according to their conditions and training capacity, except where the state provides otherwise.

Article 11 of the same Order says that institutions formulate and publish their own prospectus for international students under the national enrolment rules. It also says institutions enrol international students under the conditions and procedures set out in that prospectus.

The annex records construction disciplines (建设学科), and the seven columns of the national list do not include majors or enrolment plans. The prospectus named in Article 11 is therefore where a reader checks a university's majors and plans. Being in the annex or in the national list does not show that a university enrols international students in a given programme.

What the Ministry said about rankings

In question 9 of its press Q&A of 14 February 2022, the Ministry's official said that in identifying the scope of construction, the criteria are not linked to university or discipline rankings or paper indicators.

How to compare two universities from these sources

  1. Open the annex and find the institution by its Chinese name.
  2. Note the disciplines printed for it.
  3. Open attachment 1 of the national list.
  4. Find the institution's row.
  5. Read its 所在地 column for place.
  6. Read its 主管部门 column for administering body.
  7. Open the institution's own prospectus for majors and plans.
  8. Confirm each fact against the current official list.

Institutions appear here with their Chinese names only. Where this directory gives an English name for an institution or discipline, that name is this directory's rendering, not an official translation.

Questions people ask

Does the Double First-Class annex rank universities?

The annex is printed in order of school code, as its title says. Question 9 of the Ministry's press Q&A of 14 February 2022 says that the identification of construction disciplines is not linked to university or discipline rankings or paper indicators.

Where are a university's majors and enrolment plans for international students published?

Article 10 of Order No. 42 says institutions independently determine enrolment plans and majors for international students, except where the state provides otherwise. Article 11 of the same Order says institutions formulate and publish their own prospectus for international students.

Which column of the national list shows a university's administering body?

Attachment 1 of the national list, the list of regular institutions, has a column headed 主管部门 (administering body). The same attachment has a column headed 所在地 (place).

Sources

Checked 11 October 2026.

This page is an unofficial summary. It is not published by the Ministry of Education or any university, it promises no admission outcome, and the official Chinese text and the current official list prevail if they differ.

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