Top Universities in China

Fifth overall in the QS University Rankings: BRICS, Nanjing University is based in the city from which it takes its name, in eastern China, north of Shanghai, which is currently preparing to host the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. Among the top universities in China, Nanjing University boasts the highest percentage of academic staff members with a PhD, though unfortunately this is not matched by an equally high faculty-student ratio.  Given its highly qualified staff, the university unsurprisingly scores well for research papers per faculty member and citations per paper, as well as having a strong rating for the international diversity of its faculty.

In the QS University Rankings: BRICS, the University of Science and Technology of China is ranked 6=, joint with fellow Chinese institution Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Now based in the city of Hefei, it was originally founded in Beijing by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. With a strong focus on research in science and technology disciplines, it gets its strongest scores for research productivity and impact – ranked 7^th among BRICS universities for papers per faculty member, and 8^th for citations per paper. Its weakest score is for international students – though it’s been more successful at attracting overseas academics.

Level-pegging with the University of Science and Technology is Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of China’s oldest and most internationally reputed universities. As its name suggests, it’s based in Shanghai, and has a strong focus on postgraduate studies, with graduate enrolments exceeding undergraduates. It’s rated 4^th among BRICS universities by employers and 6^th by academics, and boasts the BRICS group’s second highest score for research papers per faculty member (beaten only by fellow Chinese institution Zhejiang University). Like many of the top universities in China, its weakest point is faculty-student ratio.

Placed 9^th in the QS University Rankings: BRICS, Zhejiang University is another of the oldest universities in China, located in the city of Hangzhou. It claims the highest rate of research papers published per faculty member of any of the top BRICS universities, though a weaker score for citations per paper suggests this productivity has not yet fully converted into an equally high level of influence. It does, however, have a very strong reputation among both academics and graduate employers, and its only real weak point in the indicators used to compile the ranking is for faculty-student ratio – a shortcoming shared by many other top universities in China.

The third Beijing-based institution to appear, Beijing Normal University places 12^th in the BRICS ranking. While it is a public research university, it’s one of just two of the 10 top universities in China listed here not included in the elite C9 group, which enjoys high levels of government research funding. It is, however, part of Project 211, another initiative focused on raising research standards. It scores especially well for percentages of international faculty and staff with a PhD (of the top universities in China, only Nanjing University is stronger on this indicator).

The second non-C9 institution to be rank among the 10 top universities in China, Sun Yat-sen University is in the city of Guangzhou, in the south-east of the country. Like all the universities listed here, it’s part of Project 985 – basically an extension of the C9 initiative, under which high levels of research funding have now been granted to 39 universities. Sun Yat-sen University ranks 20^th overall in the QS University Rankings: BRICS, getting its strongest scores for research citations per paper (19^th), academic reputation (21^st) and international faculty (32^nd).

Finally, Xi'an Jiaotong University, ranked one place behind Sun Yat-sen University in the BRICS ranking at 21^st, is located in the historically rich and fast-growing city of Xi'an, known as one of China’s four great ancient capitals, and identified as one of the country’s emerging ‘megacities’. Getting respectable scores across all eight indicators, Xi'an Jiaotong University claims its strongest score for employer reputation (19^th), while its weakest point is percentage of staff with a PhD. Compared to other top universities in China, it ranks relatively well for faculty-student ratio – among the 10 listed here, only Tsinghua and Peking do better on this indicator.

Another 30 universities in China are ranked among the top 100 BRICS universities.