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recently, there have been reports that many universities have had their majors "shut down".

according to china newsweek, from july to august this year, some universities "clustered" and announced the cancellation of a large number of majors. according to the latest statistics, more than 20 universities plan to stop withdrawing some undergraduate majors in 2024, involving more than 100 majors. for example, on august 23, northwest university released its 2024 major adjustment plan, intending to cancel seven undergraduate majors including chinese language, financial engineering, finance, and advertising, and also planned to apply for four new majors including artificial intelligence and environmental science engineering. in the previous two weeks, lanzhou university and china university of petroleum (beijing) also announced the latest professional adjustment plans, with more "reductions" than "increases".

there may be multiple reasons behind the professional adjustments in colleges and universities. for example, some are to implement the relevant requirements of the "adjustment and optimization reform plan for discipline and major settings of general higher education" issued by the ministry of education and other five departments in 2023; some are to respond to the country's strategic needs and anchor new industries and new technologies for professional layout. with the development of society, some majors have been greatly disconnected from the actual social needs, and it is difficult to sustain in terms of enrollment and student employment. some colleges and universities may also add or reduce majors in order to further focus on their own school positioning and create comparative advantages. it is impossible for college majors to remain unchanged. it is normal to adjust with the development of the times and actual needs. however, it should also be noted that this round of adjustments exposed the problems of utilitarianism and following the trend in the professional settings of many colleges and universities before, and the society cannot ignore this tendency.

according to reports, some universities, in the absence of preparation and conditions, have rushed to add majors related to current hot topics such as artificial intelligence and carbon neutrality based on the needs of enrollment and employment, or simply to respond to certain policies. a person in charge of the major adjustment at the education department of a southern province said: "many universities have a mentality of occupying a spot. when they see the strategic fields listed by the country, they want to go there. they think these fields will be popular in the future, and the government may introduce special policies to support talent training." he gave an example: last year, after the government released a policy signal to cultivate football talents, "within one day, 10 schools in the province applied for football majors."

colleges and universities lack prudent evaluation and rush to "launch new" majors, which may cause a series of hidden dangers. first of all, setting up a new major is not as simple as opening a few courses, and it needs to have sufficient subject resources to support it. in particular, some emerging majors have high requirements for teaching equipment, teaching staff, etc. colleges and universities blindly add new majors without considering their own conditions, which makes it difficult to ensure the quality and sustainability of teaching. previously, there have been cases where colleges and universities hurriedly "launched" majors, but embarrassingly stopped recruiting students a year later, making students lament that "the major is gone while i was studying." this kind of "year-discarded" major that comes and goes in a hurry is obviously not conducive to the systematic training of students.

in addition, although emerging fields and popular industries seem to be popular, many industries have a certain development cycle, and their market capacity for relevant talents is also limited. the clustering of colleges and universities to add related majors can easily lead to fierce homogeneous competition, which in turn becomes the reason for the backlog of talents.

in order to avoid the above problems in the subsequent professional adjustments, the education department needs to strengthen management responsibilities and comprehensively coordinate the professional settings of colleges and universities. in response to the application needs of majors related to hot topics, it is necessary to strengthen the selection and review, select colleges and universities that are truly necessary and capable of developing relevant professional training, and avoid the situation of adding the same major in a rush.

for colleges and universities, whether for their own development or to be responsible to students, they must remain calm and make scientific decisions, and not be too short-sighted and only focus on the present. as some education experts have suggested, college major adjustments should be carefully considered from the aspects of professional positioning, social needs, student source evaluation, teaching staff, employment results, etc., to achieve rational decision-making based on evidence, rather than "creating conditions to go ahead even if there are no conditions." even if it is necessary to layout related majors, it should be based on its own actual conditions, and through setting up experimental classes to "test the waters" and other multi-level methods, to carry out related work step by step.

in short, the adjustment of university majors is by no means a trivial matter. only by carrying out it in a more prudent and scientific manner can we ensure the quality of education and teaching and avoid unnecessary trouble.