According to the website of the Ministry of Education and Information, public universities have corresponding administrative levels, from high to low, including deputy ministerial level, bureau level and deputy bureau level. The administrative level of university presidents also varies from school to school.

The 32 deputy ministerial-level universities in China (National University of Defense Technology is a deputy military-level university) are all 985 universities, and the principals are correspondingly deputy ministerial-level positions. Take Beijing as an example. There are seven vice-ministerial universities in Beijing, namely Peking University, Tsinghua University, China Renmin University, Beijing Normal University, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing Institute of Technology, and China Agricultural University. The principals are also vice-ministerial titles.

But not all 985 colleges and universities are vice-ministerial colleges and universities.

Among the 39 985 universities in China, seven universities, including University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Northeastern University, Hunan University, East China Normal University, South China University of Technology, China Ocean University and China University for Nationalities, are not deputy ministerial-level universities.

20 15, official website, the Ministry of Education issued "Several Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Deepening the Classified Management of Education Management Office and Promoting the Transformation of Government Functions", demanding to actively create conditions and gradually cancel the administrative level of schools. The existence of administrative level defines the relationship between the school and the government as subordinate relationship, which limits the space for the school to exercise its autonomy independently. Moreover, school principals, as administrative and party and government leaders, can not reflect the characteristics and requirements of the school. Using administrative methods and rules to "manage learning" will make the school full of yamen style.