China announces World Class 2.0 initiative
China has announced a new scheme, likely to be backed by billions of dollars of funding, to ensure its elite universities rise into the global club of world-class universities. Dubbed ‘World Class 2.0’, the scheme, announced by the Ministry of Education in August, includes creating hubs for international collaboration with overseas universities close to existing university campuses but separate from them, as part of a larger internationalization drive.
Several provinces have already launched additional schemes sparked by the central government’s World Class 2.0 initiative. Shanghai, for example, recently announced a plan to support local universities with US$500 million over three years, and Guangdong province said it would double funding for provincial universities.
The previous Chinese government programs for developing world-class universities, known as 985 and 211, poured billions of dollars into elite universities – some US$33 billion over the past eight years – to improve their research performance and hence their global ranking.
Source: University World News
