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Are Chinese Universities Underrated? What the Rankings Leave Out
What rankings count, and what they miss: where graduates of Chinese universities do their PhDs, who writes the top AI research and where they work.
5 min read · Updated 28 Oct 2026 · Being verified
In the THE World University Rankings 2027, Tsinghua University is 11th in the world and Peking University 13th. After them the places fall quickly: Wuhan University is =121st, Nankai University =173rd and Huazhong University of Science and Technology =191st. Other measures, such as where graduates go on to do research, put these universities much higher. This guide shows what a ranking counts and what it leaves out.
What a ranking score is made of
In the THE methodology:
- 33% comes from reputation surveys: 15% for teaching and 18% for research. Academics are asked which universities they rate highest. A name that has been known abroad for a century collects votes more easily than one that has grown quickly in the last twenty years.
- 7.5% comes from "international outlook": the share of international students, the share of international staff and international co-authorship. Most staff at Chinese universities are Chinese, so they lose points here whatever the quality of their teaching.
- The score covers the whole university. A university that is among the best in the world for engineering but ordinary in other subjects ends up in the middle.
Some universities have also stepped back from international rankings. In 2022 Renmin University of China decided not to take part in overseas rankings, and Nanjing University said they were no longer a development target. Renmin University and Lanzhou University do not appear in THE at all, although both are in ARWU and the Best Chinese Universities Ranking. See our rankings page.
Where their graduates do their PhDs
Every year the US National Science Foundation counts the people who earn a research doctorate at an American university, by the university where they did their bachelor's degree. In 2024:
| Bachelor's degree from | US research doctorates, 2024 | THE 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Peking University | 332 | 13 |
| Tsinghua University | 291 | 11 |
| University of Science and Technology of China | 284 | =51 |
| Zhejiang University | 208 | =34 |
| Shanghai Jiao Tong University | 197 | 39 |
| Fudan University | 172 | 38 |
| Nanjing University | 169 | 59 |
| Wuhan University | 149 | =121 |
| Huazhong University of Science and Technology | 141 | =191 |
| Nankai University | 137 | =173 |
| Sun Yat-sen University | 128 | =205 |
Only four American universities had more of their bachelor's graduates among these new doctors than Peking University: UC Berkeley (558), the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (395), the University of Michigan (357) and UCLA (349). Tsinghua and USTC each had more than MIT (223). Of the 21 universities outside the US on the list, 11 are in mainland China.
The totals partly reflect China's size. Still, American doctoral programs choose students by their undergraduate record, and they take more students from these Chinese universities than from almost any American one.
Who writes the top AI research
NeurIPS is one of the main conferences in artificial intelligence. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace traced the education of 10,280 authors of papers accepted at NeurIPS 2025:
- 57% did their bachelor's degree in China, and 13% in the United States.
- 69% of the China-educated researchers now work in China, up from 57% in 2022.
The same pattern shows in company labs:
- When Meta set up its superintelligence lab in 2025, Mark Zuckerberg's memo announcing the first hires credited Ji Lin with helping build OpenAI's GPT-4o and o3/o4-mini models. Lin did his bachelor's degree in electronic engineering at Tsinghua University and his PhD at MIT.
- When a list of the lab's 44 members leaked in July 2025, the Chinese tech site 36Kr counted about half from China. Most of those it profiled did their bachelor's degree at Tsinghua, Peking, USTC, Shanghai Jiao Tong or another Chinese university.
- DeepSeek's founder Liang Wenfeng, a Zhejiang University graduate, has said the team behind its V2 model was "all local", not people returning from abroad. Times Higher Education reports that the team is mostly recent graduates of Chinese universities such as Tsinghua and Peking.
Many of these researchers did a PhD abroad after their Chinese bachelor's degree, so the credit is shared. But they learned their mathematics, programming and physics at Chinese universities.
Research output
- The CWTS Leiden Ranking 2025 counts papers in international journals from 2020 to 2023. Zhejiang University is first in the world with more than 40,000, and eight of the top ten universities are Chinese. Measured by citation impact instead of volume, Chinese universities do not dominate the top ten in the same way, says Nees Jan van Eck of CWTS, which compiles the ranking.
- In the Nature Index 2025 Research Leaders, four of the top five universities are Chinese: Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and USTC.
- In U.S. News's 2026–2027 subject rankings, Tsinghua University is first in the world for both engineering and computer science.
What this means when you choose a university
- Look at your subject. The evidence above is strongest for engineering, computer science, mathematics and the natural sciences.
- Look beyond the top two. USTC, Nankai University, Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology rank far lower than their graduates' record suggests. Compare their programs, fees and deadlines on their pages.
- Check how your country recognizes degrees. Some governments and employers use a ranking cut-off, for example to recognize foreign degrees or to award scholarships.
- Plan for the language. Most bachelor's programs at these universities are taught in Chinese and ask for HSK 4 or 5. International students apply separately from Chinese students, who are admitted through the gaokao. See the HSK requirements.
Compare universities on our rankings page and the tuition fees page, or let the free study plan suggest universities from your grades, HSK level and budget.
Frequently asked questions
Why do Chinese universities rank lower than their graduates' record suggests?
A third of the THE World University Rankings score comes from reputation surveys, which follow how well known a university is abroad, and 7.5% from the share of international students and staff, which is low at most Chinese universities. The score also averages the whole university, so strength in engineering and the sciences is diluted. Renmin University and Lanzhou University do not appear in THE at all.
Do top AI companies hire graduates of Chinese universities?
Yes. Of the authors of NeurIPS 2025 papers whose education could be traced, 57% did their bachelor's degree in China, according to the Carnegie Endowment. Meta's first superintelligence lab hires in 2025 included Ji Lin, a Tsinghua graduate who helped build OpenAI's GPT-4o, and DeepSeek's founder says the team behind its V2 model was trained in China.
Which Chinese universities send the most graduates to US PhD programs?
In 2024, counted by the bachelor's degree of people who earned a research doctorate at a US university: Peking University (332), Tsinghua University (291), the University of Science and Technology of China (284), Zhejiang University (208) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (197). Only four American universities had more than Peking University.
Should I ignore university rankings?
No. Some governments and employers use a ranking cut-off, for example to recognize foreign degrees or to award scholarships, so check the rules in your country. But compare universities by subject, and look at where their graduates go, not only at the overall place.