Is China’s universities rising in world rankings? Data reveals changes in global university landscape

The latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings has been released.

While the US and UK still lead university rankings, their "relative strength is weakening". The number of UK and US institutions in the top 200 continues to decline, with four and three fewer institutions respectively since 2021.

In contrast, the performance of Chinese universities is outstanding. The global rankings of Tsinghua University and Peking University are 12 and 14 respectively, surpassing first-class universities such as the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University in the United States.

This is the first time in history that two Chinese universities have ranked among the top 15 universities in the world.

The Times ranking is recognized as one of the four most authoritative world university rankings.

The latest Times ranking scoring criteria include five major indicators: "research environment", "teaching", "research quality", "international perspective" and "industry". Among them, the three indicators of research environment, teaching and research quality each account for nearly 30%. %, and there are 17 minor indicators under the major items.

Judging from the 2024 Times rankings, the overall world ranking of Chinese universities has improved.

On the one hand, more and more universities are entering the top 500 of the list. In recent years, there has been a net increase of 3-4 schools every year.

In the top 500 list in 2024, the number of Chinese universities will be 31, which has doubled compared with 2019.

Compared with last year, Central South University and the University of International Business and Economics dropped out of the top 500. Six universities including Beijing Institute of Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Chongqing University and Dalian University of Technology caught up and entered the top 500. Beijing Institute of Technology and Xi'an Jiaotong University also ranked among the top 300.

Secondly, the rankings of universities on the list are getting higher and higher, and more and more Chinese universities are entering the middle and upper reaches.

Among the top 500 Chinese universities in the 2021 Times Ranking, the largest number are in the 401-500 range. In the latest list, more universities are concentrated in the 301-400 position, with a total of 10. The overall ranking is on an upward trend.

The 2024 Times ranking shows that among the top 200 Chinese universities, the rankings of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, and Zhejiang University have all improved by more than 50 places compared with 2020. Among them, Shanghai Jiao Tong University rose from 157th to 43rd, with the fastest improvement in ranking.

The rankings of other Chinese universities in the top 500 have increased compared with 2020. Among them, Sichuan University and Southern Medical University both improved by 5 grades, the fastest rise.

Not only the Times rankings, but also the QS university rankings, the performance of Chinese universities is also rising.

The number of Chinese universities in the QS top 500 in 2024 reaches 27, 3 more than in 2020. 67% of Chinese universities on the list are ranked 101-400.

The average ranking of American and British universities has shown a downward trend, falling from 296th to 348th. The average ranking of UK universities also fell slightly, from 451 to 477.

Although the current average ranking of Chinese universities is still lower than that of the United States and the United Kingdom, the gap is narrowing.

Judging from the specific data of the 2024 rankings, the most eye-catching thing about Chinese universities is the performance of the "research quality" indicator. Among the latest five major indicators, the "research quality" of Chinese universities has improved by a full 10 points, an increase of 17.8%, which is higher than the score increase of American and British universities on the same indicator.

In addition, looking at the top 500 Chinese universities on the list, the scores of schools in each ranking group have also increased in the "research quality" indicator. In the latest rankings, the "research quality" scores of the top 100 Chinese universities have increased by an average of 10.4 points, while other Chinese universities ranked 101-200 and 201-500 have improved by 14.1 points and 11.2 points respectively. .

A more important assessment indicator of research quality is the paper.

The "China Scientific and Technological Paper Statistical Report" shows that in 2023, the number of hot papers in my country will rise to 1,808, an increase of 82.6% from 2019, accounting for 45.9% of the world, ranking first in the world. At the same time, the number of highly cited papers in my country increased from 20,755 in 2019 to 57,900, accounting for 30.8% of the world. Ranked 2nd in the world.

Related to the number of published papers is the surge in high-end talents.

The 2023 "List of the Top 2% of the World's Top Scientists" released by Stanford University shows that the number of scientists selected from Chinese universities reached 9,013, accounting for 4.4% of all selected scientists in the world, ranking fourth in the world, among the United States, the United Kingdom, After Germany.

Compared with last year, the number of scientists working in Chinese universities increased by 0.4%, an increase of more than 1,000 people.

Among the universities with the largest number of top scientists selected, Tsinghua University has 377 selected, ranking first in the country. Top universities such as Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Peking University are also among the top.

It is worth mentioning that Times Higher Education reports believe that the significant improvement in the rankings of Chinese universities may be due to increased familiarity with ranking indicators, generous government funding, and the internationalization, education reform and research innovation of universities. The decline in rankings in the United Kingdom and the United States may be affected by the relative decline in research funding.

Judging from official data from the governments of China, the United States, and the United Kingdom, from 2016 to 2021, the higher education research and development funding of the three governments has increased year by year. However, during these five years, China's data increased the most, at 103.4%.

If we further calculate the proportion of these expenditures in GDP, we will find that from 2016 to 2021, although China's proportion is still far behind that of the United States, it has continued to grow, rising from 0.14% to 0.19%. In comparison, the proportion of the United States is stable at around 0.38%, and although the proportion of the United Kingdom has increased to 0.15%, it is lower than that of China.

In addition, the average scores of Chinese universities in the other four major indicators of the Times rankings have increased. Among them, the two items with the largest increase are "international perspective" and "teaching", which increased by 21.9% and 16.7% respectively compared with 2023. This may be due to the improvement in the proportion of international students in Chinese universities and the reputation of teaching.

Regarding the 2024 Times World University Rankings, Ming Cheng, a professor of higher education at Sheffield Hallam University, believes that "the 'weakening' of the relative strength of the United Kingdom and the United States shows that the knowledge economy is shifting from the West to the East, and this will encourage more students to come to China. Study abroad.”

However, Dennis Simon, a China expert who once worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, warned: “China must be very careful to avoid creating a fragmented higher education system with only a few elite universities and a large number of ordinary institutions. ”

Judging from the Times World University Rankings, compared with the United Kingdom and the United States, there is indeed a problem of ranking differentiation among Chinese universities. Almost all of the top universities are 985 universities.

In the 2023 rankings, there are 27 Chinese universities in the top 500, accounting for 28.4% of the total number of Chinese universities on the list. Among these 27 universities, 23 are 985 universities.

There are 30 Chinese universities outside the top 1,000, accounting for 31.6% of the total number of Chinese universities on the list. They are all 211 universities or non-"985, 211" universities.

In comparison, the British and American universities in the top 500 account for 51.9% and 63.3% of the total number of universities in their countries on the list respectively, while the British and American universities outside the 1,000 account for the proportion of the total number of universities in their countries on the list. Then they are 12.5% ​​and 7.7% respectively.

In the latest rankings, the proportion of universities ranked in the top 500 has increased to 36.0%, while the proportion of universities ranked outside the 1,000 has dropped to 20.9%, and the gap between the head and the tail has narrowed. There are more schools ranked in the middle, and the proportion of universities ranked 601-800 and 801-1000 increased to 16.3% and 19.8% respectively.

What can be expected is that as the head-to-tail gap within Chinese universities narrows, a more just and equal higher education system will be further developed.

When we talk about the world university rankings today, we should not regard it as the goal for the development of Chinese universities, but only a footnote and reminder of our development achievements.

We need to do our best to bridge the gap between universities and colleges and strive to build a more balanced higher education system that is not just about rankings and not just about indicators.