"C9" is the "China 9 Schools Alliance". This article will talk about its origin and current situation.
First, the origin of "C9"
On May 4, 1998, Peking University held a celebration meeting for the 100th anniversary of its founding, at which the then national leader announced: "In order to achieve modernization, the mainland must have a number of first-class universities with advanced levels in the world." In 1999, the "985 Project" (the creation of a world-class university) was officially launched.
The first batch of universities included in the "985 Project" construction are: Peking University, Tsinghua University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Fudan, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Nanda University, Zhejiang University, China University of Science and Technology and Xi'an Jiaotong University (sorted by institution code), a total of 9 universities.
On October 9, 2009, the first batch of the above-mentioned nine "985 universities" signed the "Agreement on Cooperation and Exchange of Talents Training of First-class Universities", and the "C9 Alliance" was announced. The main purpose of the alliance is to "share resources and accelerate development".
Second, the current situation of "C9"
With the implementation of the "985 Project" and the establishment of the "9 Schools Alliance", the level of education of each school has been rapidly improved, and it has made continuous progress in the international university rankings, and the progress has been tremendous.
In the Times 2022 World University Rankings, all C9 universities have entered the top 600, of which 6 have entered the top 100, especially Tsinghua and Peking University, which have rushed into the top 20 (see the table below for details).
Of course, because of the differences in geographical location, local economy, urban influence, etc., although C9 universities have made progress in international rankings, the degree of progress is not the same. Among them, the C9 universities in the capital Beijing and East China have made significant progress.
Judging from the admission situation of the college entrance examination, this internal difference is also obvious. Taking the physics class in Guangdong Province in 2021 as an example, Tsinghua and Peking University will have a chance within the top 180, while Hitachio University and Xi'an Jiaotong University will be within 4300 (see the table below for details).
Conclusion
The C9 Alliance was once the top representative of domestic universities, and the difficulty of obtaining the examination was also the greatest. However, after more than 20 years of rapid development of domestic universities, many non-C9 universities have also risen rapidly, and the difficulty of some non-C9 universities has exceeded that of some C9 universities.