한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Author | Southern Window reporter Huang Zemin

Intern Liu Shuyu

Editor | Xiang You

Recently, Sichuan University announced that it plans to cancel 31 majors.

Zhang Xu didn't expect his alma mater to cancel so many majors at once. And he saw that the landscape architecture major he had studied was on the list. He couldn't help but sigh, "It should have been done a long time ago."

After entering university, he found that this major was different from traditional engineering. It did not have high requirements for mathematics. "Basically, after five years of undergraduate study, the basic concepts of science were almost all gone." He said that it would be too difficult to switch majors to other engineering fields. However, the extremely thin professional barriers made it an object that could be easily replaced in the same discipline.

This led to failure in the job market. After graduation, he encountered many setbacks in his job search. And the employment rate is one of the indicators that the school considers when deciding whether to keep a major.

However, the landscape architecture major that Zhang Xu studied was not the only one to be cancelled.

According to the "Registration and Approval Results of Undergraduate Majors in Regular Institutions of Higher Education" published by the Ministry of Education, more than 4,000 undergraduate majors were cancelled in the five years (2019-2023). In 2023, a total of 1,670 undergraduate majors were cancelled in various universities, the largest scale in history.

Some experts pointed out that the majors that have been cancelled in recent years are the ones that were very popular earlier. It is inevitable that colleges and universities blindly follow the trend and launch new majors.

In addition to these historical issues, many people are more concerned about the reality of how a major is cancelled. At the same time, if a major is gone, how will it affect students, what will happen to the major teachers, and what majors will continue to disappear in the future?

01

"Out of Print" Major

The undergraduate major is about to become "out of print" at his alma mater, which, in Zhang Xu's view, "is equivalent to reducing a pitfall."

Zhang Xu is one of those who "fell into a trap". In 2012, Zhang Xu took the college entrance examination in Henan and his score was less than 10 points higher than the admission line of Sichuan University. He failed to be admitted to his first choice and was transferred to the landscape architecture major. At that time, the major was still named landscape architecture design.

He was completely confused about the major. He wanted to repeat his studies, but he didn't have the courage. After all, getting into a "985" university was already a good result. He found documentaries of architectural masters. The exquisite designs and the booming real estate industry at the time made him feel that as long as he worked hard, his future would be bright.

In the first two years of school, he took courses that overlapped with architecture and urban planning. It was not until the third year that the course content began to be subdivided.

The high degree of overlap in courses indicates confusion in the setting of some majors in colleges and universities. For example, the environmental science major that Sichuan University plans to cancel has many core courses that are exactly the same as the environmental engineering major that it will retain. The training programs and core courses of architectural environment and energy application engineering and civil engineering also have many overlaps and similarities.

Subject education without boundaries is difficult to cultivate students' core competitiveness, and when placed in the market, it often becomes an "unpopular" major that is difficult to find employment in.

In addition, changes in social demands have also caused some majors to become unpopular.

The landscape architecture industry is actually a supporting industry for the real estate industry. With the development of urbanization in my country, the growth rate of the industry has slowed down, affecting the employment environment of graduates.

Zhang Xu graduated from college in 2017. The employment opportunities for landscape architecture majors are limited, so most students choose to continue their studies. He went directly into the job market but was repeatedly rejected in interviews. He interviewed with well-known real estate companies, and many of his competitors included graduates from Peking University and Tsinghua University. He also interviewed with landscape construction companies that matched his major, but was also unable to get in. In the end, he could only join a real estate startup in Tianjin.

Soon after, the epidemic broke out. He changed jobs, and then in 2021, he was admitted to the Architecture Department of Shanghai Jiaotong University. After graduating this year, Zhang Xu found that few of his classmates stayed in the construction industry. Due to the strong demand for career change, "construction career change has become an industry", and many training courses focusing on construction career change have emerged.

Whether it is an unpopular major caused by chaotic settings or an unpopular major caused by changes in social needs, they are all focus of reform.

In 2023, the Ministry of Education and five other departments issued the "Reform Plan for Adjustment and Optimization of Discipline and Major Settings in Ordinary Higher Education" (hereinafter referred to as the "Reform Plan"), which clearly stated 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.

Along with the release of the "Reform Plan", many places have issued guiding opinions on optimizing and adjusting the professional structure of their provincial universities.

Taking Sichuan's "Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Linkage Mechanism of 'Employment-Enrollment-Training' in Higher Education Institutions" as an example, majors whose graduation destination implementation rate has been lower than 50% for two consecutive years will be warned with a yellow card; majors whose graduation destination implementation rate has been lower than 50% for three consecutive years will be warned with a red card; majors whose graduation destination implementation rate ranks last for two consecutive years will be given a deadline to make rectifications, reduce enrollment plans or stop enrollment (except for majors that require special protection).

It can be seen that the "graduation destination implementation rate (employment rate)" is a key indicator for reducing, suspending, and even canceling professional locations.

02

Where are the teachers going?

The students are gone, the major is gone, and many professional teachers feel mixed emotions.

In 2022, the school's Chinese Language and Literature major, which had been offered for decades, officially stopped recruiting students. Yu Yu was so anxious that he took Chinese medicine for half a year.

One year before the major was discontinued, the school leaders often held meetings with faculty and staff to discuss the rationality of the major. She realized that the cancellation of the Chinese Language and Literature major was the result of the school's educational positioning and discipline development plan.

Yu Yu is a lecturer at a public second-tier university in a provincial capital city in Northeast China. In this science and engineering university, liberal arts majors have always been on the margins. She said that before the announcement of the suspension of enrollment, the school did not reduce enrollment and enrollment was not affected.

She once thought about transferring to another school to "start over." She turned her attention to schools that offered Chinese language majors, sent out five or six resumes, received some responses, and passed the interview, but she didn't take that step. She didn't want to "be backward compatible" and was even more worried that if she went to another school, the major would be cancelled.

The school still has the last batch of students who have not graduated. After the major "disappears", Yu Yu may become a non-professional course teacher, or teach adjacent majors such as journalism. This requires her to adapt again.

In the past two years, students majoring in journalism have been leaving the school from time to time. She speculated that it was due to the influence of Zhang Xuefeng, but of course, it could not be ruled out that it was the students' personal wishes. Regardless of the reason, the rumors revealed at the school meeting made her feel that the journalism major was also in danger. But that's all for later.

At present, scarce students mean scarce courses, and the number of class hours is directly linked to assessment. How to complete the number of class hours has become a more urgent issue.

“Although our requirement (for the number of class hours) is very small, there is currently no information (on the consequences of not completing the required number of class hours).” Too many unknowns and confusions increased her anxiety.

In this regard, He Nuo, a lecturer at a non-key university in Nanjing, has figured out some experience - "offer your own elective courses and ask others for classes."

How to ask for classes? According to He Nuo's experience, it means putting other teachers' names on scientific research results, and in exchange, the other party will give some compulsory courses. Don't have any expectations, "what you want is what you get."

This year, He Nuo sent off the last batch of graduates from the school's biotechnology major. After that, the traces of this major in the school will fade away little by little. He will also appear in more and different types of classes.

In 2021, he was suddenly informed that the major he had taught for two years had decided to stop recruiting. He saw some students complaining on WeChat Moments that the major was gone before they graduated.

After the decision to stop recruiting students, the lower-level courses ended quickly. In the past three years, he has been "seeking" classes everywhere and has been exposed to many unfamiliar courses. After the major was cancelled, this situation is very common, "Many teachers will teach things they have never learned when they have no classes."

Yilin is feeling anxious because she has no classes to attend. She works at an engineering college in Hangzhou, teaching advertising. After the decision to cancel the major, it will be merged into a new direction of the visual communication major next door.

It is a completely different major, and the source of students has changed from liberal arts students to art students. In addition to the significant reduction in class hours, how to teach students has also become a major problem. "The way of teaching is different, and the specific class schedule will be different. Each major teacher will have his own set of methods, which is equivalent to entering a new subject area, and some new learning and adjustment are required." Yilin said.

In addition, this group of advertising teachers mainly lays the foundation and is responsible for lower-level courses. "They (visual communication teachers) hope that students can acquire certain skills in their junior or senior years, and they need to constantly adjust which courses to take and which courses to connect with." After becoming "assistants", they need to "cooperate" with visual communication teachers in teaching and cultivate the talents they need.

There are less than two months left before the new students will be enrolled, and the relevant work is still under discussion and adjustment. Yilin really cannot guarantee the quality of teaching. She is also concerned about the impact on the subsequent evaluation and appointment of professional titles.

Advertising is a marginal major in this marginal college. In her opinion, the suspension of enrollment in the major is a "target task" from the school level. When the sickle "chops" down, it does not necessarily focus on the enrollment rate of the major.

Without professional courses, she would "lose the profession to rely on", and it would also be a problem as to which field to focus on and publish papers in the future. How would she introduce herself when participating in academic exchange activities in the future? Yilin found that the gap between disciplinary differences was thus widened.

At the school where He Nuo works, if the required hours of teaching are not met, they can be deducted by scientific research. However, the threshold for teaching hours to be evaluated for professional titles is high, "the average number of teaching hours must exceed the college or school average for several years." This means that teachers who do not have professional courses are almost out of the question.

03

renew

In fact, the intensive adjustment of professions is related to policies.

On April 2, 2024, the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on Further Improving the Undergraduate Major Setting Work in Ordinary Colleges and Universities". In principle, colleges and universities applying to add majors (excluding Sino-foreign cooperative education majors and second bachelor's degree majors) should be included in the school's discipline and major development plan and pre-application should be made one year in advance. Majors that have stopped enrolling students for five consecutive years and have no students on campus should be revoked in principle.

Li Jun, director of the Teaching Quality Monitoring and Evaluation Department and the Director of the Teacher Teaching Development Center of a certain university, told Southern Window that universities cancel majors mainly based on social needs. In his opinion, the employment rate is one of the factors for adjusting majors, and the more core reason lies in the country's layout of industries and the changes in society's demand for talents.

The adjustment of college majors is often seen as a "barometer" of changes in market talent demand. The addition and elimination of majors potentially send out signals of industry trends.

"Reforming" majors is also a way to change the source of students. Li Jun said that the adjustment of majors by colleges and universities involves the school's judgment on newly applied majors. However, in the actual development of majors, they will be affected by many factors such as education mechanism, economic conditions, regional differences, teaching staff, and student sources.

According to Li Jun's observation, the majors that are being eliminated are usually applied majors with "short-term" characteristics. For example, a major that was very popular more than 10 years ago emerged due to industry needs, but now does not meet the needs of the times and is more likely to face elimination.

He took the radio and television major in the media industry as an example. In 1998, the Ministry of Education promulgated and implemented the third revision of the "Catalogue of Undergraduate Majors of Regular Institutions of Higher Education", and the original radio and television journalism major was changed to the radio and television journalism major. In October 2012, the Ministry of Education promulgated and implemented the fourth revision of the "Catalogue of Undergraduate Majors of Regular Institutions of Higher Education", and the original radio and television journalism major was changed to the radio and television major.

"When the radio and television major was established, television was gradually becoming prosperous, so the major was very valuable at that time." Li Jun explained that with the changes of the times, the modification of the radio and television major "is nothing more than a broader scope."

With the broadening of the scope, the distinction between this major and other majors, such as radio and television editing and directing, broadcasting and hosting, and other artistic media majors, has become smaller. "From a news perspective, it is very similar to journalism. If compared with art or other media majors, it is not biased towards technology, so this major is very likely to be eliminated," he said.

"Generally speaking, there is a correlation between the cancelled majors and the newly created majors." Li Jun believes that after the traditional "version" is updated, teachers are required to update their knowledge and abilities, especially teachers of applied disciplines. This process may be painful, but it is also a necessary path.

On the other hand, Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told Southern Window that some universities set up majors blindly and arbitrarily, and "scramble" to set up the same major to pursue "popularity". In fact, these majors do not meet the school's positioning, and the school has no conditions to make them distinctive, nor can it cultivate talents that meet social needs.

At the same time, many majors are merely given “fashionable names” without actually adjusting the course content. Similar majors bring about a large enrollment scale, resulting in an oversupply of talent training, but without any competitiveness, and popular majors become unpopular in the blink of an eye.

The adjustment of majors cannot only treat the symptoms but also the root cause. Xiong Bingqi believes that emphasizing the characteristics and quality of majors is the key to establishing majors in colleges and universities. "No matter what type of university it is, the establishment of majors belongs to educational and academic affairs. The school's professorial committee and academic committee should discuss and decide on the addition or cancellation of majors. This requires universities to establish a modern university system and improve the professional mechanism construction of majors." He said.

"Universities are eager for quick success and instant benefits, and they are not responsible for teachers and students," said He Nuo. After the major stopped recruiting, he took seven or eight different courses.

Preparing for these unfamiliar courses is more troublesome than before, and he needs to spend more time learning the content he is going to teach from scratch. But overall, changing teaching positions is not too difficult. If you meet a teacher who is willing to share courseware, the difficulty can be reduced. After all, "it's just a job, no matter what you do, it's a job."

"Who would be willing to devote themselves to building a major that can be opened and closed at will?" said He Nuo.

(Except Xiong Bingqi, all other characters in this article are pseudonyms)

The pictures in this article are from the Internet

-END-

Editor-in-Chief on Duty | Zhao Jinghan

Layout | Fengjian Chefeifei

Produced by Nanfengchuang New Media

Reproduction without authorization is prohibited

Follow Nanfengchuang to see more exciting content