Are Global University Ranking Tables Still Valued in China?

Abstract

<p>Recently, the withdrawal of Lanzhou University, Nanjing University, and Renmin University in China from major global ranking tables has attracted great attention at home and abroad. One cannot help but wonder whether these withdrawals will be part of a wider trend leading to a chain reaction among Chinese universities. Many university administrators, researchers, and policy makers wonder what this might suggest—if withdrawing from university rankings and the ranking industry in its existing state reflects a government strategy to redefine the concepts of world-class university and world-class discipline and increase the global influence of Chinese universities. They also wonder if this move could be a basis for setting new indicators to assess which Chinese universities and disciplines should be listed in the next round of the Double World-Class University and World-Class Academic Discipline Project (China’s latest excellence initiative that aims to transform over 40 elite Chinese universities into first-rate global universities and more than 100 academic disciplines into first-rate global ones by 2050).<br></p>