China closes Projects 211 and 985 to additional universities
China’s education minister Yuan Guiren said no additional universities would be admitted to Projects 211 and 985. Answering questions at the National People’s Congress Standing Committee on December 30, 2011, he described the scale of the two programmes as stable.
The minister put Project 211 at 112 institutions and Project 985 at 39. He said the next stage would involve long-term planning, dynamic management and phased implementation.
The announcement concerned membership of the programmes, alongside support for strong disciplines outside their existing university lists. It marked a shift from adding institutions toward managing and developing the established projects.