The impact of higher education reform on research performance of Chinese universities

To address challenges for the 21st century, the Chinese government initiated a series of higher education reforms to support the open-door policy of China. Part of the education reform involves an allocation of additional funding of US$ 20 billion to a group of 112 universities to strengthen their research capabilities with an ultimate goal for them to become national catalysts for raising Chinese educational standards to world-class quality. The target university group is known as Project 211 universities. Other non-Project 211 universities have not received such resources. This paper is the first to provide rigorous assessment of the impact of the latest higher education reform on the performance of Chinese universities for the period 2007–2009.