Among the 985 engineering universities, except 7 universities such as South China University of Technology, Northeastern University, Hunan University and East China Normal University, they are all middle management universities. At present, the principals of middle management colleges are all vice ministers.

University presidents in China have corresponding administrative levels, which can be divided into deputy ministerial level, main department level, deputy department level, main department level and deputy department level according to the different universities they belong to. South China Normal University, as a 985 key university, is not a medium-level university, and its president naturally belongs to the vice-ministerial level and the lower-level official department level.