Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Big changes are coming to higher education but what do they mean for the future.
Recently China unveiled a major update to its academic programs introducing nearly 30 new fields of study.
This is not just a routine adjustment however, it's part of a broader push to align education with shifting national priorities and emerging opportunities.
We'll get the details on that today.
We're live from Beijing.
This is a Roundtable.
My name is Steve. And for today I'm joined by Niu Honglin and Lai Ming.
First, on the program.
Recently, China's ministry of education introduced 29 new majors to advanced education institutions in response to the evolving needs of national strategies and the pursuit of high quality development.
The ministry stated that the latest edition represents a more significant shift in undergraduate majors.
So, how does this year's adjustment of academic disciplines differ from the previous years, and with graduation season approaching, what policies are in place to help graduate students achieve high -quality jobs and sufficient employment?
Nhonglin and Leiming, good afternoon to you both.
I'll start with this.
If you could start your university studies again, what would be your major?
English. Oh really?
Still? I did the same major that I had when I was in college.
You do the same thing again?
I do the same thing all over again.
Why do you say that?
Because I stuck at other subjects.
English was my only hope.
Knowing where your strengths lie is a good skill to have. Nonglin, how about you?
Oh, I am a risk taker.
I would like to go for coding or anything related to computing, science.
I think that is the new, you know, new language that you should really acquire.
And now, I am using, for instance, AI tech or AI tools a lot, and I feel that I do not really understand the logic behind it.
I would love to. So coding would be my imaginary major.
Do you know what mine would be?
Dance and theater. Now see, why does everybody laugh when I say that?
Well, we would like to show encouragement and support.
It would! See, this is ruining my confidence.
I dance all the time at home.
All right, well, let's get into it.
Many, many, many new majors introduced here in the country.
What are the details?
Sure. The ministry announced updates to the catalogue of undergraduate majors in general colleges and universities on April 22nd, and like you said earlier, nearly 30 majors will come to details I'm sure later.
But suffice to say, there are carbon neutrality, science, engineering, and international cruise management.
Oh, that sounds like a good one.
Yeah, very cool jobs.
Maybe come to think of international cruise management might be my option, if I could do that again.
How quickly you can change your mind.
Yeah. So universities, this is all around the country, yes?
Yeah, universities nationwide added more than 1800 new undergraduate programs, while suspending enrollment in more than 2 ,200 programs, and phasing out nearly 1 ,500 others.
Additionally, 157 existing programs underwent modifications in degree categories or the duration of study.
And it's important to note that changes like this and has been going on on a yearly basis.
It's just that this year we're seeing more of a drastic change as compared to other years.
Yes, there is a reason for that.
And in fact, for the past ten years, the changes of majors, of different programs in different universities, the adding of majors, cancelling and adjustments, it happens all the time.
But the percentage sticks around 5 percent annually.
Yet, since February 2023, the Ministry of Education and four other departments issued the plan for adjustment and optimization of academic programs in regular higher education.
I think we covered that on the show.
Yes we have we have done it last year and this plan said that by 2005, 20 percent of academic program offerings in universities will be optimized and adjusted, meaning that from 2003 to 2005 we are going to make the adjustment of over 10 percent, around 10 percent of the every year, hence last year we experienced the largest number of adjustments of majors and this year it's similar numbers of adding of adjustments, just different majors.
Yeah, it's it's it's not just the addition right?
There's no there's the subtraction of some majors yeah suspended enrollment that means that the students who have entered into the program can remain in the program I assume, but they will not be accepting any new students.
Yeah still a large number of new programs and kind of a big shuffle.
So let's talk about some of the standout new majors then.
Sure. According to Xinhua News Agency, among the new editions serving strategic areas of national interest, are majors such as regional and country studies.
Makes sense because China is opening its doors to the world and therefore we've seen more and more communication between different civilizations and cultures.
As such, I think it's vital that we know a little bit more about each other in different countries, maybe an island country near the coast of Africa or something.
A regular Chinese person might have no idea what this country is all about — the trade, the people, their culture — but with the contact increasing, I think it's important.
You don't want to make a cultural shock or major blunder when you're trading with potential the Northeast or an island, island there, so that's for sure.
And another interesting major that we mentioned earlier is carbon neutrality science and engineering.
I think this makes sense too.
China is aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by year 2060 and also to have the carbon emission peak at 2030.
So a lot of efforts needs to be input there.
If you have certain environmental goals in your policies then you need to have people who now who know how to achieve those goals in the talent and the industry hence the introductions of the programs yes so those make sense right and marine science and technology and health and medical securities also in recognition of technological trends majors including smart molecule engineering i i assume this is somewhat related to biochemical or advanced material, and this goes hand in hand with China's industrial policy.
And then medical, device, and equipment engineering and spatial temporal information engineering, and these are also on farm majors that young senior school students should be interested in doing too.
And also to cater to emerging market trends, the catalogue now includes majors such as international cruise management, something that I became instantly interested in the beginning of a show, without even hearing any of the details.
I know yeah I could imagine you know, just traveling in the vast sea.
You don't have to imagine, I looked it up.
International Cruise Management Studies delves into the intricacies of the global cruise industry, encompassing both the operational and business aspects of cruise operations.
When you study, the students will explore topics like maritime law, environmental regulations, also the unique challenges and opportunities of the industry, but it also covers hospitality, management, food and beverage, customer service, and then also the cultural and economic impact of cruising.
Let's go to that class together.
It sounds really fascinating.
Sounds fun to arrange ballroom, dancing, you know, and...
Well you could hire me, remember I'm going back to dance school.
Well, I think Limeing has provided a good way to look at the changes in majors.
I am looking at it in a slightly different way.
That is to look at it as having some really fun and artistic majors added into the programs, current University programs and having some very useful, very scientific and what the market really needs kind of programs. So, when it comes to the really fun and artistic ones, we see majors such as the kind of major that is the integration of art with technology and artificial intelligence.
We see music technology – it sounds mundane, not a new thing – yet it encompasses combining music and technology in the ways of having people learning musical acoustics, introduction of instrumentology, applied music theory, electronic music technology, and synthesis and production of music.
It allows you to compose with the help of artificial intelligence.
And there's also digital drama.
It is based on the essence of drama and this field use technologies such as artificial, or VR and AR, artificial intelligence, interaction design.
to explore new digital parameters for drama creation.
And there's also digital performing arts design.
It involves incorporating digital technology into stage design, meaning that you can have a real performer interacting with a digital or a virtual element.
And there's also virtual space art, there's habit design or habitat design and game art design and dance therapy.
Dance again. Dance therapy, I like it.
I'm happy to see that some of these new majors being introduced, it's not about, yeah, there's elements of AI, which is cool.
And it's also expected, right?
That's the trend. That's the direction that the world is going these days.
But also there are still, pardon me, there's artistic representation in some of these new programs as well.
So what I mean is it's not all going tech and engineering and medical and things like that, there's still plenty of creativity being represented in the classroom.
That's for sure because here at where we work, we've been experimenting with AI and trying to generate music videos or songs using AI.
And we found that unlike, for instance, text to image or text to video, where an average person can use his or her imagination to try and coax the AI or the tech to generate the content that he or she wants.
The issue with music is you do need a certain level of educational background or skill in order to know what you're getting, and also in order to be able to tinker the result of generative content.
So it's very interesting to see such majors incorporating both art and technology into the new revolution of the curriculum for undergraduate students.
So the approval of new majors obviously reflects an active strategic approach and the focus is placed on driving integration and innovation across fields.
And this year many the new majors are clearly interdisciplinary and cater to critical national strategies and urgent public needs such as area studies, geriatric medicine, and health.
So cross -discipline, integration, and trying to leverage the skills and knowledge and just the collective wisdom of mankind and the recent breakthroughs in technology, and that's really creating the new a growth point for education and also for industries.
Yeah, and I think interdisciplinary education is really important.
You talked about it already, didn't you, Lai Ming, where you said, oh, about a future business deal with a country that we're not familiar with, well, knowing about the humanistic side, the humanities.
Combining the humanities with more technical studies is a really important thing to do.
And here's why I say that, Because when you combine things like engineering study with the study of humanities or medicine with the study of humanities, there are ethical considerations.
We talk about AI all the time.
And whenever there's an AI topic, we always bring up the ethical considerations, right?
So if you have things related to artificial intelligence, then we have to be aware of things of like the environmental impact or social responsibility, for example.
And if we're only studying how to create smarter, faster, bigger A .I.
in the future, but we forget the human side of things, then that's not the correct course.
Yeah, slightly rude, but cordial greeting in one culture or in one language could mean some very, very serious accusation or slur in a different culture or civilization so that you don't really want to be engaged in an amicable work lunch while beginning with, you know, a very serious insult on the business partner.
So that's one of the worst things you can imagine if you were living in the world of business.
And another side of the story is that in this country, we actually are very careful when it comes to adding a new major in university Because for many people, even we say that half of the population are not working in occupation or in a position that is directly related to their major, still, for people university major is something very important.
The design of the major, the actual courses to study, is a serious issue, which is why, most of the occasions, these university new majors would have to go through certain process.
You have to apply one year in advance, you have to submit a lot of materials demonstrating or proving the importance of adding that major, and also where the graduates of the major would go after graduation.
Yet the world is changing so fast. Currently here in the society, we see the changes in frontline social demands are first reflected in recruitment trends.
Then here in China, a funny phenomena happen.
That is the vocational education institutions.
See, after the popularity of AI, we see a lot of online courses teaching people how to use AI.
What are some problems you can use?
So they react really fast because they do not have that huge responsibility.
And then you would see the change in university majors, but it's hard to balance, isn't it?
hard to find the perfect spot where you make sure the design of your major is scientific enough.
It will not cause problem for a generation of students.
At the other side, you also want to act fast enough so you can meet the demand of the market, of the industry, of the students.
Yeah. The addition of these majors and also the removal of majors, it reflects the alignment, between the supply and the demand.
And there's always efforts being made to encourage universities to actively serve national strategies and regional development needs.
That's a really important thing, regional development needs.
And they do that by optimizing and then adjusting their major offerings.
There was an example, last year, there was a pilot program in five different provinces that worked to enhance the alignment between university programs and regional development by creating 132 cross university specialized majors.
So that's exactly what you're talking about, recognizing the needs, recognizing the trends overall, but then recognizing the needs of regions and introducing programs to help reflect what's going on in those particular places as well.
Now that being said, the majors that we talked about, a couple of them are fun, for example, the cruise management, But the majors that we talked about kind of seem to reflect the societal trends, right?
The Engineering majors, the AI majors.
Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, is there any reason for students or parents maybe even to be concerned that they just might be temporary, these majors, trendy programs that might be around for a short amount of time, kind of riding that cultural wave, if you will.
Is there any reason to be concerned about that?
Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that we are now living in a world where change is taking place so rapidly in the matter of a few months.
We will see a new version of AI being able to do things that they have not been able to do last year or that kind of thing.
So things change, businesses change accordingly and as such, So, if there is the likelihood of maybe one student signing up to a major about this type of AI, but not being able to keep up in the matter of four years upon graduation, that's for sure.
It might be outdated.
When I was in university, this is going to make me sound very old, my computer class was DOS.
Oh, yeah. I learned DOS, as well.
Did you? Okay. Well.
But that's kind of an example, isn't it?
Now, that's useless to know now, maybe, I think it is.
I think the logic still applies a little bit.
Does it? I didn't really pay attention.
But I said yes and no, and no in a sense that because the society and technologies are changing so rapidly, there's no guarantee that we could get by our entire life based on the studies that we've done in four years of our life.
It's a guarantee, it's a must, we must continue learning, we must adapt to the new technologies, that's for sure.
So the answer is yes and no. Yes, there's some kind of concerns but no you shouldn't, you should be even more concerned about staying in sync with the rate of technology advancement and disruption.
And guess who also worried quite so much about this?
The government, the universities, they try really hard to strike a balance.
For instance, in September, 2024, after the application period of applying for new majors, the Ministry of Education proactively respond to the rapid development needs of the low altitude economy by guiding six universities, including Beihang University, to conduct evaluations and establish they have established the low altitude technology and engineering program and the program, instead of having this advance while one year in advance of apply process, because it's really in dire needs and they want to make sure they can add the program in time.
So that's one example.
Well, yeah, and that's also proof that these majors, we may not need to worry about them only being a hot trend, because if they need to introduce the majors, you said a year in advance before they're actually accepted, that means they're not actually just riding a hot wave. No. Right.
There's a lot of thought and careful planning that goes into these.
And that's kind of an obvious thing to say.
But anyway. Besides, we see other universities trying to figure out different ways to train students, to give them the possibility of choosing different majors or choosing different courses based on their hobbies, based on their enthusiasm, and their talent.
For instance, Fudan University recently announced a new round of educational and teaching reforms changing the basic unit of talent cultivation from program to project.
It means that they have a 2 plus X plus Y model.
And the 2 refers to general education and professional education.
X represents multiple development paths and Y stands for integrated innovation capabilities.
Specifically, it includes several models.
You can have undergraduate to PhD programs oriented toward basic academic disciplines, professionally oriented undergraduate to master's and then to PhD programs and also interdisciplinary undergraduate to master to PhD projects, meaning that you can change and you can see those different types of courses as legal units and you put them together based on your needs.
Building blocks. Building blocks instead of the design of the major itself, so these kind of leniency, the flexibility, it's their experiment.
Yeah flexibility is a good word to use because you're not just locked into one specific thing, right?
Let's talk about some specific examples then, I mentioned it when we started our chat that graduation season is approaching, so what kind of policies are there that are in place to support really good employment opportunities for university graduates.
Well on the national level, there are measures including building regional industry specific job markets for graduates, launching employment education alignment projects and providing services and assistance to graduates from families affected by poverty, low income status, zero employment, as well as those with disabilities who have been unemployed for a long period.
This is on the national level.
I was going to ask more on a local level.
As for the local level policies, cities like Beijing, Shenzhen in southern China, and well, Beijing in the northern part of the country and Shenzhen in the southern part of China and Ningbo in eastern China have launched a free temporary housing services for young people, including university graduates during their job search or internship.
And in, for instance, Haishu district in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, has set up 11 youth talent stations with about 600 rooms, offering up to 14 days of free accommodation based on actual needs.
And in different places, there are also incubation areas for people who wanted to start a business.
So those are some policies as well.
Sure. Yeah. I couldn't help but like to propose one interesting thing to discuss.
And this had just occurred to me.
And this is because I was just comparing the attitudes towards the Ministry of Education in China and in the US.
I mean, there's been a huge talk about canceling the Ministry of Education.
I believe that already happened in the US.
But whereas in China, in light of the changes in majors and curriculum design, I believe that while on the one hand it is important that universities react to the demands from the job market, but on the other hand I believe individual universities don't necessarily have the big picture view of the industries as a whole and they probably don't know what the national strategies are.
So I think it's necessary, in light of what we already discussed on this topic, to have an overall guidance or supervisory body at the national level.
So as such, I think it's important to have some educational policies being dictated at the Ministry of Education, but then again, given the drastic changes and rapid changes taking place in our society and in industries, I think it's also important for the Ministry of Education to stay agile and adaptive to the changes as such, I think the times are really imposing a really high requirements rather on education ministry.
So what you're suggesting is, don't overreact to certain trends or what have you by introducing new programs and cutting other programs, don't underreact by not making enough changes to keep up with current trends a .k .a.
do it perfectly. Yes that's exactly what Leibnig is suggesting and on top of that guess what else you can do ministry of education you can pair up the enterprises the companies the market with the universities having students go have an internship and learn about what is the latest requirements of certain job positions and learn about it in the majors and guess what they are doing it already.
Yeah it's it's always interesting to discuss the changes that come about in university programs and some of them are exciting and fresh and new.
When those new changes come it's always sad to say goodbye to a couple of other programs. I was looking it up.
I was looking up schools in the United States just to see if, you know, things were happening along the same lines and yeah, there's a lot of new AI programs. There's one media university that introduced a digital media management degree, which I think is kind of cool.
It's about video production and editing, but also then the management of social media accounts and things like that.
But then I saw another university was cutting their wine making program.
That included grape cultivation courses.
How cool would that be to take?
That's why I think I agree with you, Lyming, that we need to be careful right?
The introduction of new things is great but let's make sure that we're keeping other things that other people might be interested in even if they're not related to the job market, right?
Universities can have those types of courses.
They should, in fact.
everyone should study dance and theatre
