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Universities in China DirectoryIndependent · built from published lists

Not a government or university website. Applications go to each university through its own channels.

Is there an official ranking of universities in China?

Sources checked · Unofficial summary

The Ministry of Education documents used in this guide are lists of institutions, not a ranking. The national list has no ranking column, and the second-round Double First-Class list is printed in order of school code. This guide sets out what each document says and where it comes from; for how this directory is organised, see this directory's section page.

The Chinese texts are the official texts. The English wording in this guide is this directory's translation. Institution names are given in Chinese as printed in the official documents, because this guide does not use English institution names. Check every name against the current official list before you rely on it.

What the Ministry publishes

Document Date How the entries are printed
National list of higher education institutions, attachment 1 (regular institutions) Position as of 17 June 2026 Seven columns: serial number, school name, school identification code, administering body, location, level of education, remarks
Second-round "Double First-Class" list, annex 1 to 教研函〔2022〕1号 Issued 9 February 2022 Ordered by school code, as the annex title states
"Project 985" school list Page generated 6 December 2006 School names under the page's header fields
"Project 211" school list Page generated 23 December 2005 School names under the page's header fields

The order of a list is its printed order, either school code or list number. That order is not a judgement of quality.

The second-round Double First-Class list

The notice of 9 February 2022 was issued jointly by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission. It says the list was examined by an expert committee, studied by the three ministries and submitted to the State Council for approval. Annex 1 is the list. Annex 2, which covers first-round disciplines given a public warning, is not covered here.

Paragraph 2 of the notice says that 北京大学 and 清华大学 determined their own construction disciplines under the second round and published them separately.

Counting the entries of the list, the annex names 147 institutions. Two of them have no disciplines printed. Across the other 145 institutions there are 433 discipline entries, covering 97 different discipline names. These are counts made from the annex, not figures printed by the Ministry.

What the press Q&A says about rankings

Question 9 of the Ministry's press Q&A of 14 February 2022 deals with rankings and indicators. The official's answer makes three points.

  • In monitoring construction, the Ministry does not take titles (帽子) and paper counts as monitoring points.
  • In assessing construction results, the Ministry does not simply use paper counts, changes in rankings or the number of titles as evaluation indicators.
  • In deciding which disciplines are included, the Ministry does not link the decision to university discipline rankings or paper indicators.

Why the list does not separate two kinds of university

Question 10 of the same Q&A addresses the second-round list. The official's answer says the list does not distinguish between universities for first-class university construction and universities for first-class discipline construction. It also says the Ministry is exploring a system of classified development, classified support and classified evaluation as one of its key tasks. The answer states that the construction programme is not meant to sort Chinese universities into grades (三六九等).

The Project 985 and Project 211 pages

Each page carries a header table. The 985 page's summary field describes a list of institutions approved for construction under Project 985 by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance. The 211 page's summary field describes a list of schools approved for construction under Project 211 by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance. The entries under each header are school names. Both pages are dated by their header fields, so use the date printed in the header when you cite them.

For any school, confirm its name and status against the current official list before you rely on this guide.

Questions people ask

Does the Ministry of Education publish a ranking of universities?

The Ministry documents used in this guide are lists. The national list has seven columns, and none of them is a ranking column. The second-round Double First-Class list is printed in order of school code, as its annex title states.

Is the order of the second-round Double First-Class list a ranking?

The annex title says the list is ordered by school code. That order is the printed order of the list. The annex does not give a score or a judgement of quality for any institution.

Does the second-round list separate first-class university and first-class discipline universities?

Question 10 of the Ministry's press Q&A of 14 February 2022 says the second-round list does not distinguish between universities for first-class university construction and universities for first-class discipline construction.

Does the Ministry use paper counts or ranking changes to assess construction?

Question 9 of the same press Q&A says the assessment does not simply use paper counts, changes in rankings or the number of titles (帽子) as evaluation indicators. It says the assessment focuses on quality, service and contribution.

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 where the official Chinese text or the current official list differs from this page, the official Chinese text and the current official list prevail.

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