Universities change courses to better reflect nation's needs

Major adjustments

China currently has 1,308 undergraduate tertiary institutions that offer 816 programs across 12 disciplines and 93 categories, and cover 62,000 locations nationwide, according to the Ministry of Education.

Wu Yan, vice minister of education, said the quality of these programs is crucial to China's goal of becoming a leading nation in education, with undergraduates making up 80 percent of students in higher education.

"Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, there has been a significant restructuring of the academic program," Wu said at a news conference last month.

Over the past 12 years, 21,000 new program locations were added, while 12,000 program locations were either discontinued or suspended due to their lack of relevance to economic and societal need, he said.

This year, 1,673 new program locations were added to meet national strategic needs, while 1,670 were removed for being misaligned with economic and social developments, he added.

Sichuan University canceled 31 undergraduate programs earlier this year, including broadcast journalism due to the major's unsatisfactory admission conditions.

Huang Ziqing, a 21-year-old broadcast journalism student at the Communication University of China (CUC) in Beijing, said the discontinuation of the major at Sichuan University may be the result of insufficient resources and industry integration.

"The broader decline of traditional broadcast media in favor of digital platforms also led to the adjustment. It might also be a historical trend, where a discipline is either retired or rebranded to adapt to the times," Huang said.

Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said the adjustments are not necessarily an indication of the popularity of a particular major.

Some universities are introducing majors that other institutions have chosen to discontinue, highlighting that the establishment or cancellation of a major is not the sole criteria for determining its quality or value, he said.

"When considering newly added majors, students and parents must carefully evaluate the school's educational mission and resources. It is essential to conduct a thorough analysis rather than making assumptions based on the name of the program," Xiong said.