There are 30 12 universities in China, including 2756 ordinary universities (undergraduate 1270, junior college 1486) and 256 adult universities. This table does not include institutions of higher learning in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province Province. According to the different nature of running a school, schools under the modern education system are essentially divided into public and private schools, and there are still a few schools with mixed ownership in China. Although we often use local universities and universities directly under ministries and commissions to distinguish management, historically, we have used the definition of national universities instead of provincial universities, municipal universities and private universities, and this definition still often appears in written or oral expressions.

The so-called public universities mainly refer to institutions of higher learning mainly funded by the national government or local governments, and private universities mainly different from private capital. American public universities have their own characteristics. As far as maintaining equal educational opportunities is concerned, public schools have made positive contributions. Only public schools can ensure that all children attend school, regardless of gender, nationality, wealth, religion and other factors. Even in the arrangement of classes, it is required to be normal and strive for equal opportunities.

Public universities are established by the state, and the state provides part of the funds for their construction. Public universities in China are better than private ones, because they have a long history, profound cultural background, excellent style of study and relatively stable school-running strategies, and all the funds of public universities come from state grants. Therefore, national college entrance examination candidates try to choose public universities when choosing their studies.