Photo: VCG
The newly launched “Leiden Rankings” from the Netherlands has not too long ago drawn widespread consideration. Eight of the world’s prime ten universities on the listing are from China, with Zhejiang University ranking first, whereas Harvard University of the US – lengthy a fixture at the prime – fell to 3rd place. The outcomes sparked intense dialogue. The New York Times printed an in-depth evaluation underneath the headline Chinese Universities Surge in Global Rankings as US Schools Slip, whereas France’s Le Monde reported on January 20 that the ranking had triggered widespread shock, noting that the rise of Chinese universities has made the West much less sure of itself. How ought to one view this “shocking” ranking? Our reply is straightforward: with composure.
First, the ranking does mirror, to a substantial extent, China’s advances in training and science and know-how. The Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, which publishes the ranking, is very revered in the world subject of scientometrics. The ranking focuses totally on analysis output in high-impact worldwide educational journals. Chinese students have ranked first globally for years in each the quantity of SCI-indexed papers and quotation counts. Judged by these standards, it’s hardly unintentional that Chinese universities occupy eight of the prime ten positions. In 2025, China’s analysis and improvement (R&D) spending depth reached 2.8 %, surpassing the common of economies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the first time. The rise of many Chinese universities in the rankings is subsequently a pure final result of China’s long-standing dedication to the technique of invigorating China by science and training, coupled with sustained will increase in analysis funding.
Most of the Chinese universities ranked in the prime ten are research-oriented establishments with strengths in science and engineering, resembling Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. What the ranking successfully “captures” is the rising competitiveness of China in fields resembling digital communication, supplies science, physics, and chemistry. From Huawei’s 5G applied sciences to the Tianhe supercomputers, and to the quantum satellite tv for pc “Micius,” Chinese university analysis groups have performed a direct, vital, and in-depth function behind these achievements. The steady movement of innovation generated by Chinese universities has been a strong driver of China’s transition from a serious manufacturing nation to a serious science and know-how energy.
However, it is very important stay clear-eyed about the limitations of this ranking, which has a definite focus – or desire. It locations larger emphasis on universities’ efficiency in educational analysis publications, reflecting solely a part of the image moderately than the entire. Judged by extra complete indicators, the extra well known world university rankings stay the QS World University Rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities. In these rankings, universities from the US and the UK proceed to dominate the prime tiers. In phrases of analysis originality, world expertise attraction, and employer repute, established Western universities nonetheless get pleasure from benefits. These gaps additionally function a reminder that the total power of Chinese universities – significantly their capability to translate built-in applied sciences into real-world purposes and their fashions for cultivating progressive expertise – nonetheless has room for additional enchancment.
Even so, in early 2000, the similar Leiden Ranking nonetheless had seven US universities amongst the prime 10, whereas Zhejiang University solely made it into the prime 25. Today, though Harvard produces much more analysis than it did again then, it has slipped to the third place. Given the progress made by Chinese universities over the previous twenty years, it’s hardly obscure why Western media may really feel “shocked.” This ranking has overturned many long-held perceptions. In reality, Chinese universities didn’t seize the highlight “overnight.” In latest years, from advances in primary analysis and breakthroughs in frontier applied sciences to leaps in strategic industries, China’s scientific and technological rise has lengthy been seen to the world. As universities function a “reservoir” for scientific and technological improvement, it’s only pure that greater training establishments have made corresponding good points.
As for some Western media retailers linking the Leiden Ranking to narratives of “shifting power” or perhaps a “new world order,” that is an overreaction. Behind such “shock” lies Western nervousness over the erosion of technological hegemony. In actuality, the progress of Chinese universities doesn’t suggest the failure of the West; moderately, it represents a “collective increment” in humanity’s total creation of information. From Harvard’s liberal training to Stanford’s entrepreneurial incubation, drawing on superior academic philosophies from developed international locations has itself been a part of the progress of Chinese universities. At a time when world information cooperation is changing into ever extra carefully intertwined, solely by breaking free from zero-sum considering can humanity’s scientific enterprise advance collectively.
In a way, the Leiden Ranking is sort of a mirror, reflecting each our achievements and our shortcomings. Every 12 months, many Chinese college students cross oceans to pursue their research, with venerable Western establishments resembling Harvard and Oxford remaining their “dream schools.” We additionally hope that in the future, extra worldwide college students will come to treat Chinese universities as their very own “dream schools” and select to check in China. That can be a much more persuasive form of “ranking.”