Traditional architecture at the gate of Peking University is apt for an institution steeped in history. Experts are optimistic that Chinese universities will climb up world university rankings in the years to come. [Su Weizhong / for China Daily]

IN ITS efforts to produce world-class universities, China is investing heavily in its education system

'It is inevitable that China will climb up university rankings in the years to come." This statement from Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, is quite in consonance with China's optimism that its educational system will produce world-class universities. But there are still hurdles to overcome, say experts, before China's universities can hog the limelight.

This year, for instance, is turning out to be less than stellar for universities from the mainland. In international rankings, they have slipped, losing out to more reputable North American and British counterparts.

In the latest Times Higher Education World Rankings, Peking University dropped 10 places from its position last year to rank at 49th. Tsinghua University fell to 71st place.

But in Asia, Peking is ranked 4th and Tsinghua 8th.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provides citation database information.

A combination of factors determines rankings - research output, study environment, reputation and international outlook.

But Baty also recognizes that international rankings have traditionally favored English-language institutions as they mostly focus on research written in English when they do their poll.

China's economic boom has intensified investment in research and development in recent years and the number of published citations by universities has increased more than 10-fold in the past eight years. However, despite the enormous progress, the quality of education and research done by Chinese academia seems not to have kept pace.

China's research strength - calculated by the number of citations published in highly respected English-language journals - is still weak compared to its Western counterparts.

This suggests while many papers are being produced, not all of them are of the quality that would attract international attention.

Tsinghua and Peking recorded a mere 6.5 and 8.6 citations per publication respectively, far below the 15 to 30 citations per publication of the top 100 universities in the Times World Rankings.

In international university rankings, China has several second liners, but very few chart toppers, experts say.

But tertiary education in China is flourishing, thanks in part to huge government spending on that sector. China spent an amount equal to 3.69 percent of the country's GDP on education in 2010, according to Ministry of Finance data.

There are now a total of 2,723 schools catering to 31 million students. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of students has more than quadrupled. Today China has the largest and one of the fastest growing higher education systems in the world.

Many of its top universities - Peking University, Tsinghua University and Fudan University - are public institutions more than 100 years old.

Most were founded using the modern American academic model during China's modernizing spree in the final years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). These institutions have produced China's best talent and count many top political leaders as their alumni, and are generally highly regarded in the international arena.

The main counterpart to the Times World Rankings is the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Since 2003, ARWU has been listing the world's top 500 universities annually, based on a set of indicators and third-party data. It is also recognized as a reliable indicator of global university rankings.

ARWU uses six parameters to rank world universities such as the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel prizes and Fields medals, the number of highly cited researchers, and the number of articles published in respected journals.

More than 1,000 universities are evaluated, and the best 500 are published.

The ARWU differs from other rankings in that it only consider objective metrics, such as the number of publications produced and quotations received by a university, and does not take other intangible factors into account, such as study environment or reputation.

Different parameters also make the judgment of Chinese universities much harsher. This year, Peking and Tsinghua universities rank at 167th and 178th respectively, better than the previous year.

Fudan University does not even make it into the top 200.

The ranking puts Harvard University on the top of the list, followed by Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Cambridge, Caltech, Princeton, Columbia, Chicago and Oxford.

Despite their weak ratings, Ying Cheng, executive director of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Center for World-Class Universities, believes China is on the right path to creating world-class universities.

By ARWU standards, according to Cheng, Peking University and Tsinghua University can already be considered as such. "Besides, between 2003 and 2010, 20 new Chinese universities have entered the top 500, dethroning just as many American ones," he says.

Analysts agree that while Chinese universities are strong in natural sciences, they have traditionally been weak in social sciences.

Times Higher's Baty says universities in China lack academic freedom for scholars to think outside the box in their research, and this limits their ability to become all-round research institutions.

However, some experts argue that if China's tertiary education is not up to scratch, it may be that the country's education system as a whole is to blame.

Tsinghua University Professor Zhou Zhong says Chinese students come under tremendous pressure during their school years. First they have to prepare for the gaokao, the university admission exam that requires heavy memorization, and then at university they feel the pressure of finding a good job after they graduate.

"This thwarts the quality of China's intellectual output. Students worry too much about looking for a good job, and earning enough to buy a house. During their college years, they often tend to place too much practical value on their choice of subjects," Zhou says.

Financing is another decisive factor in the race for top academic ranking. Ying says that while universities in the US can count on enormous private endowments, in China the best universities are public, and there is hardly any private funding.

"A good university in China needs at least 1 billion yuan (118 million euros) a year. There are no such rich people in China," he says.

However, generous public investment is set to balance the lack of private endowments. Central and local governments have been allocating great sums of money to top universities since 1998 with the goal of producing "first world universities".

China has also invested in higher education in its more disadvantaged regions. In July, the government announced it would pump 3 billion yuan into universities in Tibet. This is part of its East-West University Partnership Project, a partnership program between top universities in the eastern regions and universities in the west, aimed at accelerating education reform in poorer parts of the country.

According to a report by the Royal Society of London, China has increased spending in academic research by 20 percent per year since 1999. This has helped keep a growing number of China-born academics in the country. The country is also now the world's second biggest producer of academic paper.

China's generous investment in education is in sharp contrast with what is happening in the West, where countries are cutting university budgets because of financial difficulties. For this reason alone, Baty believes Chinese universities reaching the top of the ladder will just be a matter of time.

"Being rich helps, and China's universities are getting richer," Ying says. "Heavy investments will lift China up the rankings."