A comprehensive university refers to a university with many disciplines and interdisciplinary academic knowledge. There are many colleges, and the definitions are different all over the world. Famous comprehensive universities in China include Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Nanjing University, Wuhan University and Southwest University.

Universities of science and engineering refer to universities that specialize in science and engineering. There are Huazhong University of Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Harbin Institute of Technology, Tianjin University, Tongji University, Northeastern University and South China University of Technology in China.

Tsinghua University, referred to as "Tsinghua" for short, is directly under the Ministry of Education of People's Republic of China (PRC) and directly under the central government. Ranked as "2 1 1 project", "985 project", "world-class university, first-class discipline" and so on.