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Recently, the Academic Affairs Office of Sichuan University announced the adjustment of undergraduate majors in 2024. This move has attracted attention because 31 majors were cancelled at the same time.

According to the disclosure, the majors that the school plans to cancel cover multiple categories including science and engineering, liberal arts, and art disciplines, such as music, performance, animation, radio and television, information management and information systems, public utilities management, e-commerce, applied physics, nuclear physics, biotechnology, materials physics, etc.

Several education experts told China Newsweek that Sichuan University's move to eliminate majors is rare, but it is not accidental. Instead, it is part of the trend of adjusting the professional layout of universities across the country in recent years.

According to public information, during the same period, three other "double first-class" universities also announced their plans to adjust their majors in 2024. For example, Northeast Forestry University plans to cancel two undergraduate majors, Chinese International Education and Information Management and Information Systems. Tianjin Polytechnic University plans to cancel several undergraduate majors, including Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation, Building Environment and Energy Application Engineering. Ningbo University plans to cancel three majors, namely Urban and Rural Planning, Humanities Education, and Marine Resources and Environment.

"Some education experts believe that today's colleges and universities 'cut' majors, in fact, is the inevitable result of a large number of 'additions' in the past." Fan Xiudi, director of the Education Evaluation Research Center of Tongji University and researcher of the Education Modernization Research Center of Tongji University, told China News Weekly that this involves an essential question: What are the basis and rules that colleges and universities should follow when setting up majors? At present, colleges and universities should consider social development trends or the employment expectations of the general public, and adhere to the foundation and conditions necessary for professional construction. How should colleges and universities strike a balance between the two?

Picture/TuChong Creative

More than half were once "popular" majors

Sichuan University is one of the universities with the largest undergraduate enrollment. According to its official website, the school currently has more than 37,000 full-time undergraduate students.

Recently, the Academic Affairs Office of Sichuan University announced the annual undergraduate major adjustments for 2024.

The announcement stated that according to the requirements of the "Notice of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education on the Establishment of Undergraduate Majors in Ordinary Higher Education Institutions in 2023" (Ministry of Education's Letter No. 5 [2023]), after application by the college, expert discussion organized by the school, review by the school's teaching guidance committee, and approval by the school affairs committee, the school plans to apply for one new major, prepare five majors, and cancel 31 majors in 2024.

The specific majors that have been cancelled are as follows: musicology, performance, animation, insurance, radio and television, information management and information systems, public utilities management, e-commerce, applied physics, nuclear physics, biotechnology, materials physics, materials chemistry, metal materials engineering, inorganic non-metallic materials engineering, electronic science and technology, electronic information science and technology, confidentiality management, industrial design, network engineering, architectural environment and energy application engineering, environmental science, urban and rural planning, engineering cost, landscape architecture, water conservancy and hydropower engineering, hydrology and water resources engineering, textile engineering, metallurgical engineering, safety engineering, and information security.

At the same time, the school only plans to apply for one new major, namely biomass technology and engineering, and five majors are planned for preparatory filing, including Chinese classics, intelligent information engineering, intelligent construction, intelligent engineering and creative design, and medical equipment and equipment engineering.

College entrance planning expert Liang Tingfu told China Newsweek that more than half of the 31 majors on the cancellation list were once "popular" majors, including radio and television, e-commerce, network engineering, industrial design, and today's civil engineering major.

In his opinion, there are two main reasons for Sichuan University's large-scale cancellation of majors: first, there are too many colleges and universities offering this major, resulting in oversupply and excessive employment pressure, and the majors need to be actively cancelled to adapt to social development, such as public utilities management, e-commerce and other majors.

On the other hand, some of the majors that Sichuan University plans to cancel this year are not actually being directly cancelled and no longer recruiting students. Instead, they are being merged and reorganized into new majors (categories) for large-scale admissions in order to adapt to the university's innovative "broad caliber, solid foundation" training model, or because of the rise of a new wave of interdisciplinary studies due to the development of AI artificial intelligence technology.

"For example, the majors that are currently being planned for filing - 'intelligent building' majors often include majors such as 'building environment and energy application engineering, environmental science, urban and rural planning, engineering cost, and landscape architecture'. Such changes will indeed cause some parents and students to simply think that a certain major has been cancelled and will no longer recruit students, which will lead to such a misunderstanding." Liang Tingfu said.

According to information from the school, among the majors that are planned to be cancelled, several majors such as confidentiality management and applied physics have previously stopped recruiting.

China News Weekly noted that according to the university's official website, Sichuan University has formed a school-running pattern with "undergraduate education as the center, graduate training and scientific research as the focus, and other forms of education as supplements." "Our university has a full range of disciplines and strong strength, currently covering 12 categories including liberal arts, science, engineering, medicine, economics, management, law, history, philosophy, agriculture, education, and art, with 131 undergraduate majors and 35 colleges."

That is to say, even if 31 majors were cancelled, the number of undergraduate majors at Sichuan University still remained above 100.

Colleges and universities enter a period of "intensive adjustment of disciplines and majors"

According to the Sichuan Daily, unlike the previous practice of enrolling students by major, this year Sichuan University is implementing a policy of enrolling students by major and training them by major. China News Weekly noted that just last month, the Sichuan University Academic Affairs Office also released an interpretation of the "Implementation Plan for the Reform of Enrolling Students by Major and Training by Major" at Sichuan University.

Enrollment by broad category means that colleges and universities do not enroll students according to specific majors, but instead combine similar disciplines or majors in the same department and enroll students according to broad categories. According to the usual practice, there is no major for freshman students, and the major direction is decided after the sophomore year.

According to Liao Aimin, deputy director of the Admissions Office of Sichuan University, this year's admissions policy of Sichuan University has many highlights. "Compared with 77 admissions units in 2023, this year it has been reduced to 41 admissions units. Basically, each college has set up an admissions unit, combining several majors of the same or similar disciplines into one major category for admissions.

China Newsweek noticed that during the same period, three “Double First-Class” universities also announced the adjustment of their professional settings in 2024.

The Undergraduate College of Northeast Forestry University plans to cancel two undergraduate majors, Chinese International Education and Information Management and Information Systems, in 2024.

According to the information on the official website of the Academic Affairs Office of Tianjin University of Technology, the school plans to cancel undergraduate majors including mechanical design, manufacturing and automation, building environment and energy application engineering, measurement and control technology and instruments, electronic information science and technology, light sources and lighting, human resources management, financial management, and economics in 2024.

Ningbo University plans to cancel three majors: urban and rural planning, humanities education, and marine resources and environment in 2024.

This series of major cancellations is not accidental. Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told China News Weekly that since last year, my country's colleges and universities have entered a "period of intensive adjustment of disciplines and majors."

According to Xiong Bingqi, in March this year, the Ministry of Education announced the results of the filing and approval of undergraduate majors in ordinary colleges and universities in 2023, and released the undergraduate major catalog of ordinary colleges and universities in 2024. That year, the addition, cancellation and adjustment of undergraduate majors involved a total of 3,389 majors, the largest scale in history.

In recent years, the number of undergraduate majors that have been cancelled has increased year by year. In 2019, there were only 367, but by 2022, a total of 925 undergraduate majors were cancelled. In 2023, the number of cancelled majors further increased to 1,670, and the number of new majors reached 1,673. In addition, a total of 24 new majors were officially included in the undergraduate major catalog.

"This is a concrete implementation of the previous reform of optimizing and adjusting undergraduate majors, and it will increase the intensity of optimization and adjustment," he said.

China Newsweek noted that in April 2023, the Ministry of Education, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Reform Plan for Adjustment and Optimization of Discipline and Major Settings in Ordinary Higher Education", proposing that by 2025, about 20% of the disciplines and majors of colleges and universities will be optimized and adjusted, a number of new disciplines and majors will be established to adapt to new technologies, new industries, new business forms and new models, and disciplines and majors that are not suitable for economic and social development will be eliminated.

According to media statistics, in the seven years from 2015 to 2021, a total of 90 universities cancelled the public utilities management major, 84 universities cancelled the information management and information systems major, and 76 universities cancelled the clothing and apparel design major.

Professional connotation construction is the key

"The cancellation of majors is mainly due to factors such as changes in market demand, teaching quality, and employment quality. It does not mean that the talents corresponding to these majors are not important. Majors that can be approved to open have their social existence and rationality. Their cancellation does not mean that all universities must cancel these majors." Liang Tingfu believes that we need to look at "hot and cold" university majors and cancelled university majors rationally, objectively, and dialectically.

Xiong Bingqi pointed out that when optimizing and adjusting majors, we should change the idea of ​​pursuing popular majors.

According to Xiong Bingqi's observation, most of the newly added majors in colleges and universities are still "hot majors" that attract public attention. According to data from the Ministry of Education, there are currently 498 colleges and universities in the country that have opened undergraduate majors in artificial intelligence, and 209 colleges and universities have successfully registered or applied for undergraduate majors in intelligent science and technology.

"Colleges and universities are opening artificial intelligence majors to meet the needs of the rapid development of artificial intelligence. However, if colleges and universities ignore their school positioning and conditions and rush to offer these popular majors, the quality of these majors in some schools will lack guarantee, and the same majors will become unpopular due to the large scale of enrollment and social demand not keeping up," said Xiong Bingqi.

Fan Xiudie, director of the Education Evaluation Research Center of Tongji University and researcher of the Education Modernization Research Center of Tongji University, mentioned that some education experts believe that the "cutting" of majors in colleges and universities today is actually the inevitable result of the large-scale "increase" in the past.

"This involves an essential question: what are the bases and rules that colleges and universities should follow when setting up majors? At present, colleges and universities should consider social development trends or the employment expectations of the general public when setting up majors, and should also adhere to the foundations and conditions necessary for professional construction. How colleges and universities can strike a balance between the two is an important issue that deserves attention," said Fan Xiudi. She believes that the cycle between withdrawing "hot majors" and adding new "hot majors" should be avoided.

Influenced by teaching configurations such as faculty, adjustments to university majors are usually gradual rather than sudden.

Fan Xiu Di said that there is a popular saying in the industry: the depth of education reform is the curriculum, the depth of curriculum reform is the teachers, and the depth of teacher reform is the teaching materials.

"If colleges and universities do not make major changes to their major names, it seems that they are not keeping up with the new talent requirements of social development. However, how colleges and universities should transform old majors and launch new majors is difficult to reflect only from the adjustment of major names. In other words, the adjustment of major names is far from the focus of education reform. The key is to actually improve the connotation of the major." Fan Xiudie said.

Author: Chen Weijing

Editor: Hu Yun