Tsinghua and PKU undergraduates &gt; grad students (in general, not necessarily). The problem is that most of the undergraduates go abroad for grad studies, so they get grad students mostly from 2nd tier schools. Now, China is large, and there are still a lot of good students for grad studies, but the best are already gone.<p>China is also EXTREMELY hierarchical. So, it is quite possible that a scholar (researcher, professor) with a very strong CV isn&#x27;t doing much of the real work at all, instead it is pawned off to undergrad and grad students.