Project 211 (Chinese: 211工程; pinyin: 211 Gōngchéng) was a former project of developing comprehensive universities and colleges initiated in 1995 by the Ministry of Education of China, with the intent of raising the research standards of comprehensive universities and cultivating strategies for socio-economic development. The name for the project comes from an abbreviation of the slogan "In preparation for the 21st century, successfully managing 100 universities" (面向21世纪，办好100所高校). One hundred was the approximate number of participating universities.