Summary:

On September 21^st, the Chinese Ministry of Education published details about the universities which will receive support under the country’s World Class Universities and Disciplines project (also known as the “double first class” project). 42 institutions will receive funding to help to transform them into world class universities, while support will also be provided for specific disciplines at these institutions and a further 95 universities.

The World Class Universities and Disciplines project was originally announced in November 2015 and aims to build up the capacity of China’s top universities, both in general and in specific subject areas. Selection of first-class universities was based on overall strength and aims to comprehensively enhance both research and teaching at the chosen institutions, while universities chosen for support of individual disciplines were selected based on their strengths in these fields. The university with the largest number of designated disciplines is Peking University with 41, followed by Tsinghua with 34; however, most supported universities will only receive funding for one or two specific disciplines.

There is a great deal of overlap between the universities involved in this project and previous projects aimed at supporting top institutions. All 39 members of Project 985, a funding programme established in 1998 and whose members are often regarded as China’s top universities, have been designated for support at the university level under the new scheme. Meanwhile, all remaining members of the Project 211 funding scheme have also been included, mainly receiving discipline-specific funding.

Funding under the new project will be given for a five-year period. Details of the amount of funding provided to each university have not yet been officially announced.                                                                          

Analysis by Kevin Prest and Xiaoxiao Liu

Institutions identified for support under this scheme are recognised for their strength in relevant disciplines and will receive support to further build upon this strength. They will therefore make good partners for UK institutions looking for joint research partnerships in relevant fields as well as other forms of cooperation. A list of institutions included in the World Class Universities and Disciplines project is linked below.

Like the previous Project 985 and Project 211 funding schemes, the supported institutions are still largely concentrated in China’s most developed cities. Even among universities that were not involved in these former projects, almost half were in Beijing or Shanghai, and most of the rest were in a few other highly developed regions (Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong). Most of these newly-added universities are specialist institutions, covering a wide range of fields such as the Peking Union Medical College, China Foreign Affairs University, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine  and China Academy of Art.

However, there are also some important differences between the new project and previous funding schemes. Projects 985 and 211 focused on the general development of higher education institutions, while the new project shifts the focus of funding towards specific subjects and disciplines in order to encourage universities to build up their own distinctive strengths. In addition, although institutions were added to the 985 and 211 projects over time, universities were not removed from these funding schemes; in contrast, recipients of funding under the World Class Universities project will be re-assessed every five years, allowing funding to be shifted to institutions with stronger progress.

Sources:

1. Link to list goes here – Translated list of institutions included in the World Class Universities and Disciplines project, their membership of Project 211 and Project 985, along with the disciplines in each university designated for support

2. https://education-services.britishcouncil.org/news/market-news/specific-measures-released-relating-china%E2%80%99s-world-class-universities-and-0 – Previous SIEM report on the World Class Universities and Disciplines project

3. http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A22/moe_843/201709/t20170921_314942.html - official announcement of the institutions included in the project (in Chinese)

4. http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/s271/201709/t20170921_314928.html - Q&A held by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission (in Chinese)