Higher education undergraduate programs are undergoing a new round of adjustments. Recently, the Ministry of Education released the approval results for undergraduate programs at universities for the year 2023 and published the 2024 Catalog of Undergraduate Programs for Regular Universities. Twenty-four new programs, including Electronic Information Materials, Soft Matter Science and Engineering, High-Power Semiconductor Science and Engineering, Biological Breeding Technology, Ecological Restoration, and Health Science and Technology, have been officially included in the undergraduate program catalog and can begin enrolling students from the 2024高考 (National College Entrance Examination). As of now, the catalog includes a total of 93 categories and 816 programs.
Notably, the current adjustments to programs include the addition, modification, and deletion of 1,719 programs. Additionally, the Ministry of Education approved the deletion of 1,670 programs requested by universities, totaling 3,389 program adjustments, the highest number in history.
What trends does the adjustment to the program catalog reflect? According to a relevant official from the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education, the approval of programs is both a regular annual task for adjusting undergraduate programs and an important practice for implementing the "Reform Plan for Optimization and Adjustment of Disciplines and Programs in Regular Higher Education," continuously enhancing the support and contribution of education to high-quality development, and cultivating national strategic talents and urgently needed professionals in a targeted manner.
"Currently, scientific and technological developments represented by Generative Artificial Intelligence (AIGC) are changing rapidly, essentially 'reformatting' numerous industries and tracks. This not only requires a shift in university research paradigms but also presents new demands on education and talent cultivation." This perspective from Xu Fei, Executive Vice President of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, expresses the sentiments of many university administrators: Education, science, and technology are the foundational and strategic pillars of fully building a modern socialist nation, and higher education must make timely and continuous adjustments to cultivate future-oriented talents.
Enhancing Interdisciplinary Studies to Cultivate Urgently Needed Professionals
What is the context for the adjustments to the program catalog? The Ministry of Education has clarified that the 24 newly added programs will be offered at 54 universities, aiming to guide and support universities in establishing new programs that are urgently needed for national strategies and regional development.
For example, to better serve national strategies, the Ministry of Education has added new programs such as National Security Studies, Electronic Information Materials, Biological Breeding Technology, and Ecological Restoration. Meanwhile, it supports universities in adding urgently needed programs such as Digital Economy, Integrated Circuit Design, and Integrated Systems.
Xu Fei analyzes that the aforementioned new programs are in line with national strategies and align with the new requirements for the country to cultivate and strengthen emerging productive forces. "Currently, the nation advocates actively cultivating emerging and future industries, opening up new tracks such as quantum technology and life science. However, at the same time, we must also consider whether our disciplines and talents are prepared?" Xu Fei believes that, especially in talent cultivation, the nation urgently needs multidisciplinary intersection and multi-technology cross-integration.
Our research has found that in this round of adjustments, three universities in Shanghai are offering new programs. Shanghai Jiao Tong University has added the Health Science and Technology program under its Pu Yuan Future Technology College. Relevant officials have introduced that this program focuses on future human health and life, creating a cross-disciplinary talent cultivation system that interconnects science, engineering, medicine, and the humanities. Furthermore, centered around "bio-health" and "machine health" technologies, it combines "general education" courses and "innovative practice" courses, forming an interdisciplinary curriculum system that integrates future health technology directions with a "core and wings" approach.
The Electronic Information Materials program added by East China University of Science and Technology is a cutting-edge interdisciplinary subject that integrates chemistry, materials science and engineering, and chemical engineering and technology. Gu Jinlou, Vice Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at East China University of Science and Technology, introduced that the above disciplines are exceptionally strong, all being national Double First-Class disciplines. Gu Jinlou also revealed that, as an urgently needed national program, this program began enrolling students two years in advance, not only gathering top faculty in the field but also collaborating with renowned enterprises to implement industry-education integration, thereby improving the quality of talent cultivation.
Additionally, Shanghai University of Sport has added a new program in Football Studies.
Optimizing Program Structure and Emphasizing Employment Orientation
In this round of adjustments to the program catalog, the number of programs in disciplines such as Engineering, Education, and Economics has increased the most, while the number of programs in disciplines such as Management and Arts has relatively decreased.
Experts analyze that, in terms of disciplines, Engineering has the highest number of programs, with 1,322, accounting for 39%, which corresponds to the basic situation of Engineering as the largest discipline category. In terms of regional distribution, 1,802 programs involve universities in central and western China, accounting for 53.17%. Overall, the program structure and regional distribution have been further optimized, and universities are becoming more rational in their program offerings.
Fan Xiudi, Director of the Education Evaluation Center at Tongji University, stated that another notable characteristic of this round of adjustments to the program catalog is its emphasis on employment orientation, further guiding universities to serve local industries' needs. For example, the Ministry of Education has explicitly proposed strengthening provincial coordination and guiding local universities to add programs urgently needed for regional key industrial development, such as Intelligent Manufacturing Engineering, New Energy Vehicle Engineering, Smart Agriculture, and Intelligent Mining Engineering.
The Ministry of Education has Additionally, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has introduced a trial for a new professional scheme pre-application system. This requires universities to plan for the establishment of new programs based on the needs of socioeconomic development as well as their own educational focus and conditions. Early applications are to be submitted one year in advance. This move is designed to improve the work mechanism for universities to conduct regular research and early planning for professional development, thereby enhancing the foresight and precision of program setup. Currently, 760 universities have submitted pre-application materials for new programs in the following year.
Furthermore, the MOE has dynamically adjusted the scope of nationally controlled programs based on changes in socioeconomic development needs and professional distribution. Resource exploration engineering, nursing, and midwifery have been included in the scope of nationally controlled programs.
Presently, there are 816 types of programs, with 139 designated as nationally controlled programs (17%). The scope of nationally controlled programs will remain subject to dynamic adjustments, with some additions and removals in the future.
(Original title: The Ministry of Education has released an inventory of undergraduate programs in 2024. 24 new programs have been established to address national strategies and urgent regional development needs. The addition, deletion, and adjustment of 3,389 program points is an unprecedented number. What does this imply?)
