Imagine a conversation like this:
Lee (Chinese): Eric, which university did you go to?
Eric (American): I went to UC Berkeley.
Lee: oh, I didn’t know it. Where is it?
Eric: ….
Elliott brought up an idea called”Cultural literacy” the other day as our colleagues in Uptake were very surprised at he telling everybody that he didn’t know about “Liu Xiang” (刘翔), “Lu Xun” (鲁迅) or “Zhe Jiang University” (浙江大学) which is a a top university constantly ranked at top 10 in China. It is the same scenario that a Chinese is asking an American what is “UC Berkeley” while maybe all well-educated American assume people have some knowledge about US will also know about “UC Berkeley”.
Definition of “cultural literacy” from wikipedia:
Cultural literacy is the ability to converse fluently in the idioms, allusions and informal content which creates and constitutes a dominant culture. From being familiar with street signs to knowing historical reference to understanding the most recent slang, literacy demands interaction with the culture and reflection of it. A knowledge of a canonical set of literature is not valuable when engaging with others in a society if the knowledge stops at the end of the text – as life is interwoven with art, expression, history and experience, cultural literacy requires the broad range of trivia and the use of that trivia in the creation of a communal language and a collective knowledge. Cultural literacy stresses the knowledge of those pieces of information which content creators will assume the audience already possesses.
I hope the following list of Chinese University Ranking can help you out of embarrassment from the conversation at the beginning, when your Chinese friends expect you to know they are from big names but all you have to say is “I don’t know about it.” This list is from a <2008中国大学评价> (2008 China University Review) by Wu Shulian (武书连).Wu is leading a group to evaluate universities in China Academy of Management Science (中国管理科学研究院). This review and ranking has been running for 12 years in 2008. The completed list is published as a guidebook for high school students to choose colleges every year.
As in the West, there are many different ranking every year, each ranking has different approach or measurement. Knowing university in No. 10 or No. 15 is less important than having the idea that it is a pretty well-known top 20 U. :)
Top 30 China Universities in 2008
- Tsinghua University (清华大学): Beijing
- Beijing University (北京大学): Beijing
- Zhejiang University (浙江大学): Hanzhou, Zhejiang
- Shanghai Jiaotong University (上海交通大学): Shanghai
- Nanjing Univerity (南京大学): Nanjing, Jiangsu
- Fudan University (复旦大学): Shanghai
- University of Science and Technology of China (中国科学技术大学): Hefei, Anhui
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (华中科技大学):Wuhan, Hubei
- Wuhan University (武汉大学):Wuhan, Hubei
- Xi’an Jiaotong University (西安交通大学): Xi’an, Shanxi
- Jilin University (吉林大学): Changchun, Jilin
- Zhongshan University (中山大学)：Guangzhou, Guangdong
- Sichuan University (四川大学): Chengdu, Sichuan
- Harbin Institute of Technology (哈尔滨工业大学): Harbin, Heilongjiang
- Shandong University (山东大学):Jinan, Shandong
- Nankai University (南开大学): Tianjin
- Tianjin University (天津大学): Tianjin
- Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学): Beijing
- Central South University (中南大学): Changsha, Hunan
- Southeast Unversity (东南大学) : Nanjing, Jiangsu
- Xiamen University (厦门大学): Xiamen, Fujian
- Renmin University (中国人民大学): Beijing
- Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics (北京航空航天大学): Beijing
- Dalian University of Technology (大连理工大学): Dalian, Liaoning
- Northwest Polytechnical University (西北工业大学): Xi’an, Shanxi
- Tongji University (同济大学): Shanghai
- South China University of Technology (华南理工大学): Guangzhou, Guangdong
- Chongqing University (重庆大学): Chongqing
- East China Normal University (华东师范大学): Shanghai
- Lanzhou University (兰州大学): Lanzhou, Gansu
There is almost at least one top university in the provinces along our coast line, from Liaoning to Guangdong, except of Guangxi and Hainan (which was part of Guangdong). Xian and Nanjing were the capital cities for many dynasties in China history. The advantages in politics and economy attracts more talents for these areas.
One defect of this ranking is that it didn’t include the specialized universities for language, medical and law, etc. And the private colleges are not included either. It’s more focus on the “research capability” of a university. But all the above 30 universities with other 20 universities are “the universities that Education Dept. invests directly to build and development” (教育部重点建设高校) which I understand as “these 50 universities get more funding from the government”. And a freshgraduate from the top 50 universities will have a greater chance to get a Shanghai Hukou (户口) according the Hukou application score system.
Check out here to visit the websites of these universities.
复旦光华, from West Lake in Hangzhou.
Thank you for this! I already apologized to my esteemed colleague who lost face because I disrepected his university for not having heard of it before, and now I avoid looking like an idiot by nodding knowingly and say “ahhh…I’ve heard of it” when someone else mentions they went to a top 30 university!
What about universities in Hong Kong or Macau?
universities in Hong Kong are better than these in China mainland
I am a USTB student
@ Clement: I lived in Hong Kong for about 4 years, I know Hong Kong University(HKU), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Hong Kong University of Science and Techonoloy (HKUST) have pretty good business programs, especially executive business program in Asia. They are the top 3 universities. Hong Kong Polytechnic University(香港理工大学), City U (城市大学), Hong Kong Baptist U(浸会大学), Lingnan U (岭南大学) are the main colleges in Hong Kong.
Not familiar with university in Macau.
I’m not sure if Min knowingly used UC Berkeley for her example but many Chinese actually do not know of UC Berkeley, much to my chagrin. ;)
Those rankings are always so varied, at least they’re pretty different from those I’ve seen. Shrug.
Tsinghua and Beijing are undoubtedly the Top 2 Universities in China! How these 2 univ. perform in the world ranking? They are not in the Shanghai Jiao Tong World University Ranking Top 100 in 2008.
According to QS (www.topuniversities.com) Tsinghua is ranked 49 in the world, Peking University 52, in natural sciences they rank 30th and 19th respectively.
The difficulty certainly is the various subject and ways of ranking. Employers reviews usually are based upon US-based surveys and therefore naturally tend to overrate US universities.
In general I find this very helpful not only for chosing a uni for a foreign semester in China, but also for understanding Chinese people better. Thanks for posting!
wHAT ABOUT sHANGHAI UNIVERSITY?????
What about it?
What about Beijing International Studies University? I desperately need to know how good it is.
Beijing University (北京大学): Beijing
shall be Peking University
A comment on Min Guo’s comment, that group he listed as colleges are named universities because they are universities. A university has graduate courses and graduate degrees. The “colleges” actually have Masters and Doctoral programs. They have majors besides business. The business college has several majors anyway.
According to some chinese newspaper, this ranking was made according to how much money a university donate to the ranking list maker,Wushulian,so this ranking list could be another chinese fake.
Nice Blog! Well most of your content is original and informative. Here is another blog which, too, is nice in my opinion Best USA University Ranking 2009
pls i will like to know more about liaoning university of technology because i have been offered admission at the school.
thanks
liaoning university of technology is fucked up.
why do you said liaoning university of technology is fucked up.
i would like to know about capital medical university in beijing.nd which one is the best medical school thats in english
hello dears
i want to know about the nanjing university of aeronotics and astronotics. because i have been offered admission for master degree program. and also guide me that which university is good in the field of GEOTECHNICAL STUDY ( GIS and REMOTE SENSING) Guangzhou or near to Guangzhou… please
its very informatic for student who r searching universities for studies
i study jilin university ……… i wish jilin to become first and best university on the world
i from afrika i love jilin university
Beifang ranked and related studies are always non realistic, Shanghainese and southerners are heavily discriminated against by the halfmongol beijing cadres decendants, soo called national university located in south are run by northerners administrators and has entry barriers designed to reduce southern “han” men from entry. City states like Shang hai pays for most of beijing’s and national expenses while less then five percent of it’s tax revenue are returned to the city state or it’s people. Massive costs of olympics, beijing wasteful construction comes from the blood of southerners. Yet the most important human scientific inventions have come almost entirely from group of the yangtze, original han people located from jiangsu, shanghai, zhejiang up through wuhan and to xian region. After japs destroyed, looted, raped and burned nearly every jiangsu university, the current beijing administration has yet to actually spend any worthwhile amount on reconstruction for many of the once famous and renowned southern universities. Tax revenue are spent on lavish and useless entertainment for westerners.
Strange that you should write this in English…
In the west most people think that the Han are the once who discriminate others. I know this is not true, but calling the (purely Han) government Mongol is a bit outdated, don’t you think. 100 years ago, yes, but why did the communist party (that was founded in Shanghai) chose Beijing as a capital? Think about it… it’s certainly not the climate…
What about Nanjing university of aeronautics and astronautics?????//
What about univerisities in Hongkong and Macau??
i need to join one of them.I am a graduate from africa
i want to know tht what is the ranking of xian jiaotong university in field if medicine in china an all ove the world.
and the same question about capital medical univerity…..
please reply sincerely and urgent
well,it is hard fact that china is opening itself to the world gradually,but not to INDIA at the same level, why?
In what aspect are you referring to?
The top 10 universities are very good, the top 100 all quite good, but it’s a very steep drop thereafter. Very steep. Of course this says nothing about attitude and determination, and some of the best students I have taught came from much lower ranking schools.
How about Chongqing University. Is it a good one. Also tell me that does it have any chances to grow its ranking in near future?
The ranking of Chongqing University is gradually growing these years. It has it’s own advantages and potential to continue this trend. It’s Architecture ranks top 5 in China, which is very competitive. In the meantime, this university holds a relatively strong background in the field of engineering. That’s all I know.
By the way, I’m a native in Chongqing.
Can any body tell me how can i get admission in MS HR in china and also the name of university!
is it Yangtze university is present in china
Anyone know about Syracuse university in beijing…….please i want to know is it good?