Shanghai's higher education institutions have demonstrated exceptional strength in professional education, with 37 universities seeing a total of 1,272 majors included on the 2025 Best Chinese Majors Ranking. The city's strong performance underscores its leading role in academic excellence and innovation nationwide.

The 2025 Best Chinese Majors Ranking, released by higher education consultancy ShanghaiRanking, covers 836 majors across 93 major categories and 12 broad disciplines. This year's edition marks the largest-scale undergraduate majors ranking ever conducted in China.

Among the results, Shanghai universities saw 236 A+ majors, 293 A majors, 496 B+ majors, and 247 B majors included — ranking second nationwide in the number of top-tier A+ programs.

Shanghai University leads locally with 95 majors ranked, the highest among all universities in the city. Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Fudan University follow with 76 ranked majors each. Tongji University and Shanghai Normal University both have 73 listed majors.

Twenty-six Shanghai universities have A+ rated majors. Shanghai Jiao Tong University leads with 40 A+ majors, followed closely by Fudan University with 39 and Tongji University with 32.

Shanghai universities also stand out in terms of national first-place rankings, with 69 majors from 20 universities ranked No 1 across the country. Shanghai Jiao Tong University leads with 10 top-ranked majors, including biotechnology, materials science and engineering, and smart energy engineering. Fudan University follows with eight top-ranked programs including international politics, journalism, and advertising. Tongji University also claims eight leading majors, including bioinformatics, civil engineering, building electrical and intelligent systems, and intelligent construction. East China Normal University and Shanghai International Studies University each have seven No 1-ranked majors.

This year's ranking highlights Shanghai's ongoing commitment to strengthening and modernizing its university discipline and major systems. Over the past six years, the city has introduced 297 new undergraduate majors, advancing the development of emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, big data, integrated circuits, robotics, and intelligent manufacturing.

Source: Shanghai Observer