France's Le Monde: The Rise of Chinese Universities Shakes Western Confidence in Their Academic Superiority
On Tuesday, French journalist Thibault, who is stationed in China for Le Monde, wrote in his column article that, "The rise of Chinese universities has made the West less confident." The related article states that nowadays, in some international rankings of research capabilities, Chinese universities are almost on par with their American counterparts.
The article cites an article from The New York Times dated January 15, which caused widespread shock. The reason was that the article stated that in the university ranking list published by Leiden University in the Netherlands, based on research paper output, Harvard University fell to third place. More surprisingly, surrounding Harvard University in the top ten were eight Chinese universities! In this ranking, the first place was held by Zhejiang University in China. However, in the early 2000s, in the same ranking list published by Leiden University, Harvard University was first, and among the top ten, eight were North American universities, with no Chinese university making it into the top ten at that time.
The Leiden ranking only focuses on the publication of research papers, based on the number of papers and the number of citations in the academic database "Web of Science." This indicator is obviously biased: there has long been a tendency in the Chinese academic community to "publish more papers and cite each other to increase citation rates," so this list has been questioned. However, another ranking published by the authoritative academic journal Nature is very close to the Leiden ranking. Nature's ranking only counts the most authoritative top academic journals, as determined by an independent panel of researchers, and primarily measures the number of cutting-edge research results. Nature's ranking shows that Harvard still leads, but right behind it are nine Chinese universities.
Le Monde also points out that of course, there are still rankings that reflect the "old world" pattern. For example, the Times Higher Education ranking considers teaching quality, research level, international influence, and knowledge dissemination capacity. This ranking places Oxford University first, followed by MIT, Princeton, Cambridge, and Harvard. The two most renowned Chinese universities - Peking University and Tsinghua University - are ranked 12th and 13th respectively. Additionally, five Chinese universities have entered the top 40. Similarly, the top ten of the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) are still completely dominated by universities from the United States and the United Kingdom, with the best ranking of Chinese universities being 37th.
Intense Competition
How should these different rankings be viewed? Le Monde states that the truth may lie between two extremes: on one hand, some rankings show that China is gradually dominating global research; on the other hand, some rankings indicate that Western top universities still firmly hold the core position. Driven by China's strong desire to build itself into a world-class technological power, along with the improvement of student quality and the extremely intense competition between universities, the research strength of Chinese universities is rapidly increasing.
Differences Between China and the U.S.
Le Monde believes that in China, the country's strong industrial base continuously drives research towards new products and engineering applications. Moreover, the country's ambition to achieve breakthroughs in almost all fields such as aerospace and medicine also provides support for this upward trend. This development is shaking the long-standing confidence of the West in its academic superiority.
In the United States, the most prestigious universities, especially Harvard University, have become targets of the Trump administration. The Trump administration views these universities as a "nursery of progressivism" that it opposes and attempts to cut their funding.
Le Monde concludes that in the rivalry between the two major powers, although the ranking trends of Chinese universities have strong symbolic significance, it cannot be denied that China's investment in research has significantly increased, the level of researchers has continuously improved, and the rise of China's research strength has become an undeniable reality.
Source: rfi
Original: toutiao.com/article/1854882885076291/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.