section_path: Education and research
section_name: Education and research
paragraph_text: Education and research
  
  Beijing is a world leading center for scientific and technological innovation and has been ranked the No.1 city in the world with the largest scientific research output, as tracked by the Nature Index since the list's inception in 2016. The city is also leading the world with the highest share of articles published in the fields of physical sciences, chemistry, and earth and environmental sciences, especially in the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-related output.
  
  Beijing has over 90 public colleges and universities, making it the largest urban public university system in Asia and the first city in China with the most higher education institutions. It is also home to the two best universities (Tsinghua and Peking) in the whole of the Asia-Oceania region and emerging countries with its shared rankings at 16th place in the world by the 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Both are members of the C9 League, an alliance of elite Chinese universities offering comprehensive and leading education.
  
  Beijing also has the highest number of universities of any city in the country, representing more than one-fifth of 147 Double First-Class Universities, a national plan to develop elite Chinese universities into world-class institutions by the end of 2050. A number of Beijing's most prestigious universities consistently rank among the best in the Asia-Pacific and the world, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, China Agricultural University, Minzu University of China, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, University of International Business and Economics, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Central University of Finance and Economics. These universities were selected as " 985 universities " or " 211 universities " by the Chinese government in order to build world-class universities.
  
  The city is a seat of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has been consistently ranked the No.1 research institute in the world by Nature Index since the list's inception in 2014, by Nature Research. The academy also runs the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is located in Beijing and ranked among the world's top five research institutions by the Nature Index. Beijing is also a site of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and National Natural Science Foundation of China.
  
  Some of the national key universities in Beijing are:
  
  Beijing is also home to several religious institutions, Some of them are listed as follows:
  
  The city's compulsory education system is among the best in the world: in 2018, 15-year-old students from Beijing (together with Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu) outperformed all of the other 78 participating countries in all categories (math, reading, and science) in the Program for International Student Assessment, a worldwide study of academic performance conducted by the OECD.