Project 211 is a project which aims to strengthen approximately 100 key universities and colleges for the 21st century initiated in 1995 by China's Ministry of Education. The figure of 21 and 1 within the name 211 are from the abbreviation of the 21st century and approximately 100 universities respectively. China now has more than 2,000 standard institutions of higher education, and about 6 percent of them are 211 Project institutions.

When you are browsing China's universities on CUCAS, you can find out whether a university belongs to Project 211 by looking at the ‘School Tier’ category on each university’s profile. For instance, as the picture shows below, Beijing Foreign Studies University is a member university of 'Project 211'.