Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) was founded in Yan’an in 1940. BIT is a national key university, an open, international and research-oriented university of science, engineering and humanities with science and engineering as the focus. It is one of the first universities to run a graduate school and receive privileged fund from the central government in “the 7th, 8th and 9th Five Year Plan.” BIT is also one of the national “Project 211” universities receiving preferential support from the state. In 2000, BIT was listed in “Plan 985,” which gives priority for development by Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND), Ministry of Education (MOE) and Beijing Municipal Government. In 1999, BIT passed the evaluation for “Outstanding in Undergraduate Program” sponsored by MOE. BIT ranks among the first-class universities for its high educational and research quality, strong faculty teams, and academic programs with distinctive characteristics.

In September 1998, a new Zhejiang University was established on the basis of the amalgamation of the four former individual universities, namely Zhejiang University, Hangzhou University, Zhejiang Agricultural University and Zhejiang Medical University, which were all located in the garden city of Hangzhou. Approved by the State Council, the founding of the new Zhejiang University has been a significant move in the reform and development of China's higher education. The four universities have grown out of the same ancestry, the Qiushi (with the literal meaning of "seeking truth" in Chinese) Academy, which was founded a century ago as one of the earliest institutions of higher learning in China. As a result, they have all inherited from it the spirit of "Qiushi" and at the same time, built up their own distinctive features in teaching and research.