Key universities refer to universities supported by the people of China and China, which have different meanings in different periods.

1959 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's decision to designate a number of key universities in colleges and universities identified 20 universities as national key universities; 1960 "the central government's decision on increasing the number of national key ordinary colleges and universities" added 44 colleges and universities as national key colleges and universities, totaling 64. From 65438 to 0978, the State Council's Report on Restoring and Running National Key Colleges and Universities finally identified 88 universities as national key universities, which is the concept of key universities in the planned economy era.

From 1995 to 2008, the central government designated 1 12 universities as "21/project" [1] key construction universities; 65438-0998, the central government identified 39 universities as key construction universities of the "985 Project"; In 20 12, the central government designated 100 colleges and universities in 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government as the key construction colleges and universities in the "Basic Capacity Building Project for Colleges and Universities in the Midwest (Small 2 1 1 project)"; Establish 14 universities in the central and western provinces without universities directly under the Ministry of Education as the "comprehensive strength improvement project for universities in the central and western regions"; In 20 15, the Ministry of Education, together with relevant departments, is deeply implementing the revitalization plan of higher education in the central and western regions, arranging special funds of1600 million, and implementing the basic capacity building project and comprehensive strength improvement project of universities in the central and western regions.