Tuesday 30 December 2014

How China Performs in Innovation and University Rankings


As China becomes the world's largest economy, its innovation and higher education capabilities call for more attention. Are they about to become China's major economic drivers? How does innovation converge into Chinese economy? What Chinese universities are the flagships of bringing new knowledge into the country? 


During last seven years we have witnessed almost tripling of China's GDP according to World Bank Data. In these period, China has managed to move from the fourth to the second place in the world in terms of nominal GDP size, taking over Germany and Japan consequently.

Nevertheless, its global innovation index was not gaining as well. China fluctuated steadily in the range of 29th – 43rd places in GII ranking. It’s not bad, but does not reflect enormous economic gains achieved by the nation during the same time.



This leads to the conclusion that China economic growth still remains largely based on the huge investment inflows, while contribution of innovation into its economic development has yet to be amplified. 

Meanwhile, Hong Kong, officially known as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, remains among the top hubs of global innovation. Networking of mainland China with Hong Kong is an excellent example of synergy achieved by skillful matching of labor, capital and intellectual resources. Such Hong Kong universities as The University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University belong to the world top 200 universities lists according both to QS and Times Higher Education rankings.

It is yet to see how knowledge will converge between Hong Kong and China in the next years.


Best universities of mainland China are Peking University and Tsinghua University. They steadily belong to glorious world top 100 both in QS and THE university rankings. 
Universities in China continue to dominate the QS University Rankings: BRICS, a ranking dedicated to highlighting leading institutions in the five BRICS countries. In the 2014 edition, Chinese universities take 71 of the top 200 spots, including six of the top 10 – convincingly positioning China as the current higher education leader within the competitive BRICS set.
The very top spot in the ranking is claimed by Tsinghua University, followed by Peking University in second place, the University of Science and Technology of China (4th), Fudan University (5th), Nanjing University (6th), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (8th), Zhejiang University (11th), Beijing Normal University (14th) and Xi'an Jiaotong University (19th).

In 2004 there were three more Chinese universities to be featured in the first QS ranking: Fudan University, University of Science and Technology of China, and Nanjing University. Lately, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, and Sun Yat-sen University have also penetrated the upper part of QS ranking. 




The same Magnificent Eight is present in THE rankings since 2010.




They are also the top Chinese universities according to the  2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities conducted by researchers at the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CWCU).


It is significant, that No. 8 is very welcome in Chinese culture. It associates with future, wealth, insight and discovery. And it suggests that top 8 China universities are destined to step up innovation in the country thus enhancing sustainability of its economic growth in the forthcoming years.

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