As an important part of China's emerging think tank system,university think tanks have got rapid development in last 5 years. Based on an extensive survey on university think tanks in China,this paper makes a systematic representation of the operation and development of the think tanks from the perspective of institution quantity,system construction,specialization feature,management regime,and staff size. Against the standards made by the central government and the Ministry of Education,the paper analyzes the problems and gaps in university think tanks and proposes some policy recommendations on their future development.