Since 1980s China has undergone economic and educational reforms. The policy of university evaluation was developed in this context. This study analyzes the formation of the university evaluation policies in detail. The characteristics of China’s university evaluation in the 1980s include an emphasis on social evaluation, an evaluation by diversified actors and based on evaluation indicators at multiple levels. Much progress has been made in the development of regulations on university evaluation and indicators, but issues could also be found in creating evaluation indicators. The study suggests that the formation of China’s university evaluation policies began with objectives of evaluation, followed by evaluation indicators and moved to evaluation standards. Meanwhile, the focus of the university valuation has shifted from the level of operating universities to the quality of undergraduate education.