Reference News Network, January 23 report: According to the website of France's International Radio, on January 21, the French newspaper "Le Monde" reporter Thibaut wrote in his column article that "the rise of Chinese universities has made the West less confident." The article said that now, in some international rankings of research capabilities, Chinese universities are almost on par with their American counterparts. And this is not just Beijing's propaganda.

The article states that an article published by The New York Times on January 15 sparked widespread attention. The article stated that in a university ranking based on research paper output released by Leiden University in the Netherlands, Harvard University fell to third place. More surprisingly, eight Chinese universities surrounded Harvard in the top ten. The first place in the list was Zhejiang University in China. At the beginning of this century, in Leiden University's ranking, Harvard was first, and among the top ten, eight were North American universities, with no Chinese university entering the top ten.

The Leiden ranking only focuses on the publication of research papers, based on the number of papers and the number of citations in academic databases. This indicator obviously has its biases, but another ranking published by the authoritative academic journal Nature is very close to the Leiden ranking. The Nature ranking only counts 145 authoritative top-tier academic journals, and its ranking mainly measures the quantity of cutting-edge research results. The Nature ranking results show that Harvard still ranks first, but it is closely followed by nine Chinese universities.

Certainly, there are still rankings that reflect the "old world" pattern. For example, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings take into account teaching quality, research level, international influence, and the ability to disseminate knowledge. This ranking places Oxford University first, followed by MIT, Princeton, Cambridge, and Harvard. Peking University and Tsinghua University in China are ranked 12th and 13th respectively, with five Chinese universities entering the top 40. In the rankings of the Center for World University Rankings, the top ten are entirely occupied by universities from the United States and the United Kingdom, and the best position for Chinese universities is 37th.

How should we view these different rankings? The truth may lie between two extremes: on one hand, some rankings show that China is gradually taking the lead in global research; on the other hand, others indicate that Western top universities still firmly hold their core positions.

The article says that regardless, under the push of the Chinese government to build the country into a world-class scientific and technological power, as well as the improvement of student quality and the extremely fierce competition among universities, the research strength of Chinese universities is rapidly increasing.

China's strong industrial base is driving research to extend toward new products and engineering applications, and 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, universities like Harvard have become targets of the Trump administration. The Trump administration views these universities as "hotbeds of progressivism" and tries to cut funding for these institutions.

According to the website of Hong Kong's Asia Times on January 19, for decades, global university rankings have been telling a predictable story: American universities dominate, and Harvard, Stanford, and MIT are the unchanging strongest universities. This story is changing.

In the latest ranking released by Leiden University, Harvard has dropped to third place, behind two Chinese universities.

For those who tend to view international affairs from a competitive perspective, the story is written as: the decline of the United States and the rise of China. However, this framework hides many problems.

Zhejiang University's sharp rise to the top of the Leiden ranking is not because Harvard is declining, but because the research capabilities of Chinese universities have significantly improved. The issue is not that the United States is retreating, but that others are progressing faster.

Chinese universities perform well in chemistry and environmental science, while the US and Europe still dominate in biology and medicine. This is not a large-scale replacement, but a differentiated competition.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7598378868508017215/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.