'World-class' label has meaning for colleges

The central government's vow to build a group of world-class universities and disciplines by 2020 has triggered widespread discussion on the criteria for "world-class" and how to achieve it.

Chen Jun, president of Nanjing University, said that although there were no unified or fixed criteria for world-class universities, current top universities across the world do share some similarities.

"Advanced educational ideas, independent spirits－these enable the universities to produce world-leading, influential talent and research achievements that add to their global reputation," Chen said.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, released a document on Thursday saying that the central government and local authorities will, starting from 2016, provide financial support to help a number of universities and disciplines enter the world's top level by 2020.

An outline for raising some universities and disciplines to world-class status was mentioned in China's recently released 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

According to the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, an institution that generates one well-regarded list, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, a university can be referred to as world-class when it meets at least four conditions: It is placed in the top 100 on a comprehensive, global university ranking; it has about 10 recognized top experts; it has more than 15 disciplines in the Essential Science Indicators, a tool designed by the Institute for Scientific Information in the United States to measure the academic level of universities and education institutions; and each teacher at the university, on average, publishes at least once annually in an academic journal listed in the Scientific Citation Index.

But Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher with the National Institute of Education Sciences, has his own definition for world-class universities.

"A benchmark is that the university should be managed under a modern university system that includes a university charter, a university board, an academic committee and a committee to handle campus affairs," Chu said.

Zhu Xiulin, president of Suzhou University in Jiangsu province, said there's a lot to be done for Chinese universities to catch up with world-class universities elsewhere.

"The overall education quality should be further improved, the innovative capabilities should be further cultivated to generate influential achievements and these achievements should be combined with industries more closely to accelerate the development of the economy," Zhu said.