So there's many things to consider when you're choosing a university.
If you're choosing a specific subject, it's also really important that you should consider
that this is the ranking of the whole university and not that specific subject.
Chinese universities have been rising up the rankings very fast, and there's now almost
500,000 international students studying in China. I’m going to look at the top
universities in China and look at different rankings, and the top six especially. But,
make sure you don't choose a university just on the rankings, I’m going to explain more in a bit.
The academic ranking of world universities, QS World Rankings and Times Higher Education,
they all have a slightly different formula in how they evaluate universities. The ARWU, Academic
Ranking of World Universities for example, is more about research rather than teaching.
The top six universities in China, you have University of Scientific Technology of China,
Zhejiang University, Fudan, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Tsinghua and Peking University. These are agreed
on as the top six, with one and two being Tsinghua and Peking University, which is widely agreed on
in the rankings. But they all differ in slightly different parts depending on what they look at in
the ranking. Now, the rankings I’m going to link in the description, but I also want to
introduce some of the government plan, because the government has big targets. Now, there's
three main plans. The project 211 was created in 1985, and this is a hundred universities. Now,
there's 116 universities, and the target was to develop the universities by giving them a higher
level of funding. Project 985 was created in May 1998, which is why it's called 985,
and this is to develop 39 top universities. C9 league is like the Ivy league, and it includes
nine universities in China. This is University Science Technology of China, Fudan University,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University,
Tsinghua University, Peking, Nanjing and Xi'an Jiaotong University. And then we have the Double
First-Class University, which was created in 2015. And this is combination of two different plans,
the World First Class University Plan and the First Class Academic Discipline Construction Plan,
which were combined together. Now, the target was to develop 42 world-class universities by 2050
and 465 world-class disciplines at 140 schools. And this was divided into different categories,
class A, class B universities, and the double first-class discipline universities, which
is 95 in total. Now, these different plans is basically to make the universities international,
and to develop them. These initiatives are important, because this is the government policy.
It demonstrates the universities that the government is giving more support and investing
the most money into. Those universities with more government support are going to have more
facilities and resources, and are more likely to have a better experience and attract more talented
professors and students. You can see the full list of these universities in the description below.
Now, the ranking in China. How do you evaluate a university? Be careful about reading too
much into the ranking, and even the rankings themselves, they say that they should be used
as a general guide only. So there's many things to consider when you're choosing a university.
If you're choosing a specific subject, it's also really important that you should consider
that this is the ranking of the whole university and not that specific subject. For example, your
MBAs have their own rankings, and each subject has different rankings. So there's some universities
which may be lower ranked overall, but they're much higher for the university ranking. Also,
it's important to remember that the experience as an international student is going to be different.
It’s not necessarily according to the ranking. You might have a better experience at a lower ranked
university than a top-ranked university. The rankings don't necessarily look at the experience
as an international student. Well, CKGSB is not included in the ranking for MBA. They choose not
to participate in the ranking, but they are still one of the top MBA programs in China.
And, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China,
these two universities also are not ranked as highly as they should, partly because these are
international universities. It takes time for them to rise up in the ranking, but if you want
to know where these universities are ranked, you can look at the parent universities and see where
they are ranked, and it can give you a better idea of how highly ranked these universities are. The
culture is also important. Now, we had a student who applied to Tsinghua and Peking University,
and he was trying to decide between which one he would study at. He got a scholarship to study at
both, and the decision came down to the culture of the university. Because Peking University has
a strength in humanities, possibly the culture is more creative. Whereas in Tsinghua, the culture
is more related to engineering, so it's more of an execution and getting things done culture.
So comparing these two universities, maybe like a right brain, left brain. And he decided to choose
Peking University out of those two universities, but it depends on each person, because we all have
our own values, and so it's important to choose based on the culture. It doesn't mean one culture
is better than the other, it's just different, and it can have a different match according to
different students. Now, there's a few differences between Chinese universities and Western ones.
These universities, these top six universities are so competitive and so difficult to get into,
especially Peking and Tsinghua University. In China, there's so much competition to get
into these universities, it's unparalleled in the whole world. When I was studying
at Peking University, one of my friends scored the top marks in her whole province and she got
accepted into this university. She scored the top marks in the Gaokao exam, which is
so competitive. Now, the tuition fee is also very affordable compared to internationally.
And in China, it can even be more expensive to go to kindergarten than to go to universities.
There's lots of programs in English in these universities, which you might not realise,
although the language in China is in Chinese. Now, the culture is quite interesting.
If you're studying in the university, the experience will be different to if you're studying
in a Western university. One of the differences is the teacher-student relationship, its definitely
different. You'll have a much more personal relationship, and there's not such a big divide
between public and personal life. And this is the same in China, in work and personal, which is kind
of blurred together. This can also be a good thing if you're looking for work opportunities, you can
ask for assistance with your teachers. How do you apply to these universities? It's definitely
not very simple to find the information, and we have founded a platform called China Admissions,
where you can search all of the universities and programs. You can find the information in English,
and you can apply online for free. I’m going to give a link in the description with more
information. I also have a few tips if you want to apply to the universities, make sure you apply
early, because you can often apply early and it will definitely increase your chance, especially
for a scholarship. There's a lot of scholarships in China, and so it's definitely good to apply as
early as possible. The earlier you apply, the less competition there is. It’s very important that you
understand the universities that you're applying to and make sure you do really good research,
this can definitely help when you're applying so that you can tailor your application. Thanks
for watching! If you have any comments or questions please leave a comment below.