context: World-class 2.0 is a higher education development strategy to create world-class universities and disciplines. It marks a shift from the 985 and 211 world-class university projects that channeled funds to a small number of elite universities. Announced by State Council in late 2015, the plan combines and opens up 985 and 211 funding to more universities, making higher education funding more competitive and equal.
One year after announcement of the world-class universities name list (including 36 level A universities and 6 level B universities), there have been indications that MoE will begin evaluations of their operations shortly.
MoE convened a meeting on pushing forward world-class 2.0 construction on 29 Sep in Shanghai, with participants from 137 universities. Chen Baosheng 陈宝生 MoE minister spoke, noting Xi Jinping’s recent speech at the national education conference, and urged universities to
- cultivate high-quality talents
- serve national strategic needs
- improve innovation through fresh thinking
- deepen international cooperation
- enhance development and evaluation of teaching quality
- examine individual universities’ competitive advantage
A meeting at Renmin University on world-class universities was held on 10 October. Liu Weida 刘伟达 Renmin University president directed the university to attach importance to evaluations and accelerate world-class 2.0 construction because MoE will give a ‘yellow-card warning’ to those moving slowly. A similar meeting was held at Zhongnan University, where Zhou Kezhao 周科朝 Zhongnan University vice president began a mid-session evaluation to help the school works towards world-class status.