Project 985

Map showing major universities in Mainland China. Universities of Project 985 are marked in blue

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Project 985 (Chinese: 985工程; pinyin: Jiǔbāwǔ gōngchéng) was a project that was first announced by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin at the 100th anniversary of Peking University on May 4, 1998, to promote the development and reputation of the Chinese higher education system by founding world-class universities in the 21st century.^[1] The name derives from the date of the announcement, May 1998, or 98/5 according to the Chinese date format.^[2] The project involves both national and local governments allocating large amounts of funding to certain universities in order to build new research centers, improve facilities, hold international conferences, attract world-renowned faculty and visiting scholars, and help Chinese faculty attend conferences abroad.^[3] According to the latest rankings of the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking, most of the 39 universities in the Project 985 are ranked among the top 500 universities in the world.^[4][5][6]

In 2006, another 33 universities were selected from the remaining project 211 universities that had not been included into the Project 985. The 33 selected universities are jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China to support their developments under certain scientific or engineering subjects to meet the urgent need of the state. These 33 universities together are included in a sub-project of the Project 985, called the 985 Project Innovation Platform Project.

In 2009, the original 9 founding member universities of Project 985 formed the C9 League,^[3] which is referred to as the Chinese equivalent of the US Ivy League.^[7] By the end of the second phase of the project, 39 universities were sponsored. It was announced in 2011 that the project had closed, and no new schools would be able to join.^[8]

In September 2017, a related plan called the Double First Class University Plan was announced, representing a possible reshuffle in the rankings of China's most prestigious universities. ^[9][10]

List of sponsored universities[]

39 Project 985 universities are sponsored by the Ministry of Education.^[11][12] The project also assigned funding to each university.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• C9 League
• Excellence League
• Project 211
• Double First Class University
• Plan 111
• 863 Program
• List of universities in China
• Rankings of universities in China
• Science and technology in China

References[]