The concept of "five schools in East China" first appeared in the online forums at the beginning of the 20th century, and spread rapidly among netizens concerned about higher education with the popularity of the Internet. These five universities located in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone in the east of China, together with Peking University, Tsinghua University and China Academy of Sciences in Beijing, the capital of China, are recognized as the top eight universities in China (including Peking University and Tsinghua University).
Among the five schools in East China, Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University are located in Shanghai, while Nanjing University, Zhejiang University and University of Science and Technology of China are located in the capital cities of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces respectively. The five schools in East China are all national key universities directly under the central ministries and commissions, universities directly under the central government (with deputy ministerial level), the first batch of national key construction universities of "2 1 1 Project" and "985 Project", and the first batch of national "double-class" world-class university construction universities (Class A). As shown in the figure:
The gap between the five schools in East China is not too big; From the perspective of various disciplines and strengths, Zhejiang University has the best agricultural and engineering strength, Fudan University has the best medical and humanities and social sciences strength, University of Science and Technology of China and Nanjing University have the best science strength, and Shanghai Jiaotong University has also performed well in engineering and medicine.