List of universities in China

The following notation is used:

• National (Direct): Directly administered by the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE)
• National (Other): Administered by other ministries
• Ω (National Key Universities): Universities with high regards from the MOE and the Chinese government
• Provincial: Public university administered by the province (or the autonomous region)
• Municipal: Public university administered by the municipality
• Private: Privately owned and funded university, or independent institution
• Mainland-HMT: Mainland China-Hong Kong or Macao or Taiwan joint venture university
• Sino-foreign: Sino-foreign joint venture university

The default list should follow the neutral order provided by MOE, namely the numerical order of identification codes.

Peking University is the first formally established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking (京師大學堂) in 1898 in Beijing as a replacement of the ancient Guozijian, the national central institute of learning in China's traditional educational system in the past thousands of years. Three years earlier, Sheng Xuanhuai submitted a memorial to Guangxu Emperor to request for approval to set up a modern higher education institution in Tianjin. After approval on 2 October 1895, Peiyang Western Study School (天津北洋西學學堂) was founded by him and American educator Charles Daniel Tenney (丁家立) and later developed to Peiyang University (北洋大學堂). In 1896, Sheng Xuanhuai delivered his new memorials to Guangxu Emperor to make a suggestion that two official modern higher education institutions should be established in Beijing/Tangshan and Shanghai. In the same year, he founded Nanyang Public School (南洋公學) in Shanghai by an imperial edict issued by Guangxu Emperor. The institution initially included an elementary school, secondary school, college, and a normal school. Later the institution changed its name to Jiao Tong University (also known as Chiao Tung University). In the 1930s, the university often referred itself as "MIT in the East"[15][16] due to its reputation of nurturing top engineers and scientists. In the 1950s, part of this university was moved to Xi'an, Shaanxi, and was established as Xi'an Jiaotong University; the part of the university remaining in Shanghai was renamed Shanghai Jiao Tong University. These two universities have developed independently since then, along with the original Beijing Jiaotong University.

Meanwhile, Wuhan University also claimed that its predecessor Ziqiang Institute (自強學堂) was the first modern higher education institution in China. On 29 November 1893, Zhang Zhidong submitted his memorial to Guangxu Emperor to request for approval to set up an institution designed for training students specializing in foreign languages, mathematics, science, and business. After Ziqiang was founded in Wuchang, not only courses in foreign languages was taught, courses in science (chemical and mining courses starting from 1896) and business (business course starting from the very beginning) were also developed at the school.[17] Later, although the school officially changed its name to Foreign Languages Institute (方言學堂) in 1902, the school still offered courses in science and business.[17] In China, there had been some earlier schools specializing in foreign languages learning, such as Schools of Combined Learning in Beijing (京師同文館, founded in 1862[remark 1]), in Shanghai (上海同文館/上海廣方言館, founded in 1863), and in Guangzhou (廣州同文館), founded in 1864, but few provided courses in other fields, which hardly qualified as modern education institutions. Some argued that Wuhan University can only trace its history back to 1913 when the National Wuchang Higher Normal College (國立武昌高等師範學校) was established, but Wuhan University officially recognized its establishment as in 1893, relying on the abundance of historical documentation and the experts' endorsement.[18]

Besides, Tianjin University celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1995, which would predate the establishment of Peking University. Jiao Tong University (in all Beijing Jiaotong University, Shanghai and Xi'an) followed in 1996. Other leading universities, such as Zhejiang University (1897), Peking University (1898), Shanxi University (1902), Nanjing University (1902), Hunan University (1903), Fudan University (1905), Tongji University (1907) and Tsinghua University (1911) also recently celebrated their hundredth anniversaries, one after another.

After the Chinese Civil War, parts of some famous universities of mainland China were transferred to the island of Taiwan: notably the National Central University and National Tsing Hua University. As a result, some universities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share the same names. In the ROC-controlled Fujian, only one university, National Quemoy University was founded in 1997.

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Other international rankings in external links:

• Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiaotong University
• U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking by U.S. News & World Report
• Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Times Higher Education
• QS World University Rankings by QS World University Rankings
• CWTS Leiden Ranking by CWTS Leiden Ranking
• University Ranking by Academic Performance by the University Ranking by Academic Performance.
• Nature Index Institution Outputs Ranking by Nature Research
• UTN Rankings by Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities
• SCImago Institutions Rankings by SCImago Institutions Rankings
• The Center for World University Rankings by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR)
• Webometrics Ranking ranks more than 2500 universities in China by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities

• (in Chinese) National Colleges and Universities List (1909 institutions in total as of 18-May-2007, Location, authority and level are also given)
• (in English) List of Chinese Higher Education Institutions — Ministry of Education

• MCI Approved List of Chinese universities, including official links