According to Professor Richard Levin, President of Yale University, China’s universities could soon have the potential to rival Oxbridge and the Ivy League.
Speaking at a Royal Society lecture in London, Professor Levin suggested that within 25 years Chinese universities could rank among the top ten most elite academies in the world.
Currently, British and American universities dominate the rankings, with Cambridge occupying second position behind Harvard University in the Times‘ Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. University College London, Oxford, and Imperial also feature highly, while China’s top-ranking university, Tsinghua, comes in 49th place.
However, while the UK is cutting investment, China is spending at least 1.5% of its gross domestic product on university education.
Varsity News reported that the aim remains to advance China’s foremost institutions into world-class establishments and, as a result, the government has more than doubled the number of higher education institutions from 1,022 to 2,263 in the past decade.