The first university in China is St. John's University. St. John's University was born in 1879. It is a missionary school, formerly known as St. John's College. 188 1 year, the school began to teach in English completely, becoming the first school in China to teach in English. Since 1892, the school has officially opened university courses. 1905 was upgraded to a university, which is the first modern institution of higher learning in China. It has trained a large number of famous alumni such as Hawkes Porter, Yan Huiqing, Gu Weijun, Song Ziwen, Tao Xingzhi, Lin Yutang, I.M. Pei, Zou Taofen, Rong Yiren and Zhou Youguang. 1952 faculty adjustment, St. John's University dissolved and merged into many universities in Shanghai. The school site is now Changning Campus of East China University of Political Science and Law.

The first university run by China people was Tianjin University. The predecessor of Tianjin University is Beiyang University Hall. It was born in an unusual period in the history of China 1895. 1895 10 On February 2nd, "Tianjin Beiyang Western Learning School" was established with the royal approval of Emperor Guangxu, and Sheng Xuanhuai was the first superintendent of the school. Sheng Xuanhuai made strict rules for the students of Tianjin Beiyang Western School. The most obvious thing is to ask students to focus on their own majors, not to focus step by step, and not to be chaotic. He believes that it is very important to lay a solid foundation of knowledge, and never "learn indiscriminately, just dabble". 1896, Beiyang West School was officially renamed Beiyang University Hall. In September, Beiyang University merged with Hebei Institute of Technology and was named Tianjin University.