page_title: Project 985
hierarchical_section_title: Project 985
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing the distribution of notable universities in China, including institutes in C-9 League, Project 985 and 211.
context_page_description: Project 985 is a project that was first announced by CPC General secretary and Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the 100th anniversary of Peking University on May 4, 1998, to promote the development and reputation of the Chinese higher education system by founding world-class universities in the 21st century. The name derives from the date of the announcement, May 1998, or 98/5 according to the Chinese date format. The project involves both national and local governments allocating large amounts of funding to certain universities in order to build new research centers, improve facilities, hold international conferences, attract world-renowned faculty and visiting scholars, and help Chinese faculty attend conferences abroad. According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2018/19 and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019/20, most of these 39 universities in Project 985 are considered as among the top 500 universities in the world.
  In 2009, the original 9 founding member universities of Project 985 formed the C9 League, which is referred to as the Chinese equivalent of the US Ivy League.
context_section_description: Project 985 (Chinese: 985工程; pinyin: Jiǔbāwǔ gōngchéng) is a project that was first announced by CPC General secretary and Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the 100th anniversary of Peking University on May 4, 1998, to promote the development and reputation of the Chinese higher education system by founding world-class universities in the 21st century. The name derives from the date of the announcement, May 1998, or 98/5 according to the Chinese date format. The project involves both national and local governments allocating large amounts of funding to certain universities in order to build new research centers, improve facilities, hold international conferences, attract world-renowned faculty and visiting scholars, and help Chinese faculty attend conferences abroad. According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2018/19 and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019/20, most of these 39 universities in Project 985 are considered as among the top 500 universities in the world.
  In 2009, the original 9 founding member universities of Project 985 formed the C9 League, which is referred to as the Chinese equivalent of the US Ivy League. By the end of the second phase of the project, 39 universities were sponsored. It was announced in 2011 that the project had closed, and no new schools would be able to join.
  In September 2017, a related plan called the Double First Class University Plan was announced. It was unclear whether this plan represents a new way of ranking universities in China, or replaces Project 211 and Project 985.
caption: Map showing major universities in Mainland China. Universities of Project 985 are marked in blue (C-9 league schools are marked in red and all of them are Project 985 schools too.)
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