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recently, the large-scale expansion of software engineering majors in many universities has attracted attention.

among them, as the only "211" university in shanxi, taiyuan university of technology has enrolled 1,871 students in software engineering this year, while shanxi agricultural university has enrolled 1,230 students in software engineering. the number of students enrolled in software engineering at these two universities accounts for about one-fifth of the total number of students enrolled in the university.

similar situations also occurred in some universities in henan province. for example, henan normal university, as a provincial normal university, enrolled 1,980 students in software engineering, a non-teaching major, this year.

large-scale enrollment expansion

"when we were studying, there were only about 1,000 students in the college. in just a few years, the number of students in just one class has increased to nearly 2,000." li mingming, a graduate of the school of software at taiyuan university of technology who is currently studying for a master's degree at a "985" university, lamented. he told china news weekly that the news that the number of students enrolled in the software engineering major of his alma mater this year was nearly 2,000 had already been flooding the alumni's circle of friends. like him, many alumni were also puzzled by the scale of the college's expansion.

according to the enrollment plan released on the official website of taiyuan university of technology, the software engineering major plans to enroll 1,795 students this year, while the school's total enrollment plan is 8,880. this means that the enrollment of software engineering majors alone accounts for more than 20% of the school's total enrollment plan.

a corner of the taiyuan university of technology campus. photo/visual china

according to the latest data released by the school, after the admission work was completed, the actual number of students enrolled in the software engineering major was 1,871, with the highest score being 578 points and the lowest score being 534 points, 76 more than the initially announced plan.

in fact, taiyuan university of technology's software engineering major has been expanding its enrollment for many years. according to data released on the university's official website, the school's software engineering major will enroll 1,541 students in 2023, 330 more in 2024 than the previous year; and the school's software engineering major will enroll 1,536, 1,243 and 1,149 students in 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

so, what factors do colleges and universities generally take into consideration when determining the number of students to be admitted to each major?

"colleges and universities often follow several principles when recruiting students. the first thing they will consider is the employment rate and quality of employment of this major in the current environment, such as which majors are more competitive in the job market; the second is the economic account. the school will consider which majors make more money and which majors lose less money; finally, the quality of students will also be considered, that is, which majors can attract better quality students." said chu zhaohui, a researcher at the chinese academy of educational sciences.

he told china newsweek that in practical terms, different universities have different room for adjustment. for example, universities such as peking university and tsinghua university are subject to more restrictions in adjusting the scale of their majors, while some local universities have relatively much more room to adjust their majors.

in recent years, software engineering has been a popular major and has been recommended by many "planners" for further studies. specifically, the tuition fees for software engineering are much more expensive than those for other majors. for example, at taiyuan university of technology, the annual tuition fee for software engineering is 16,000 yuan, while the tuition fees for other majors at the school are around 5,000 yuan per year. the tuition fee for software engineering at henan normal university is 12,000 yuan per year, while other majors are around 4,400 yuan. the tuition fee for software engineering at henan university of finance and economics is as high as 17,500 yuan per year.

in contrast to the higher tuition fees, the software engineering major in the aforementioned universities, which has a large number of admissions, has relatively low score requirements.

for example, the software engineering major at taiyuan university of technology has been enrolling students in the second batch of undergraduate a since 2016, until 2023, when the major was upgraded to the first batch of undergraduate b. as a "211" university, except for national and local special projects, most majors at taiyuan university of technology are enrolled in the first batch of undergraduate a, and the admission scores are higher than those of software engineering.

exaggerated "student-teacher ratio"

after the large-scale expansion, the faculty and teaching quality have attracted the attention of many people in the industry.

"when we were in school, we could clearly feel the shortage of teachers, even though the college enrolled more than 1,000 students each year." li mingming told china news weekly that when he was in school, many professional courses were taught by four classes together. for example, when it came to courses like advanced mathematics, there were even more classes taking the course together.

"after one year at school, i found that many professional courses were large classes." an undergraduate student majoring in software engineering at taiyuan university of technology told china newsweek.

according to the official website, the school of software of taiyuan university of technology currently has 35 teachers, including 3 professors, 8 associate professors, 14 lecturers, and 10 teaching assistants.

in the past four years, according to the official website data, the school's software engineering enrollment numbers were 1,871, 1,541, 1,536 and 1,243 respectively. if calculated based on the published enrollment numbers, the college currently has a total of 6,191 students, and the "student-teacher ratio" (the ratio of students to teachers) has reached 176.8:1.

the "student-teacher ratio" of henan normal university's school of software is also high. according to the information disclosed on the school's official website, henan normal university's school of software has 40 teachers. according to the enrollment plan on the school's official website, the number of students enrolled by henan normal university's school of software from 2021 to 2024 will be 2,080, 1,980, 1,990 and 1,980 respectively. if calculated according to the published enrollment numbers, the total number of students in the college is currently 8,030, and the "student-teacher ratio" has reached 200.75:1.

a view of henan normal university campus. photo/visual china

"such a 'student-teacher ratio' is extremely exaggerated. in order to complete the teaching task, we need to hold large classes in lecture halls," a university teacher told china news weekly. in his opinion, if professional courses are always held in large classes with hundreds of students, the teaching quality may be greatly reduced, "because even attendance becomes very difficult."

in the field of education, the "student-teacher ratio" is a key indicator. the lower the ratio, the more likely the university is to adopt elite small-class teaching. many well-known universities generally have a low "student-teacher ratio", usually below 10:1 or even 5:1. for example, tsinghua university has a total of 16,203 full-time undergraduate students in the 2022-2023 academic year, 3,024 teachers, and a "student-teacher ratio" of about 5.35:1.

specifically, at taiyuan university of technology, the school of computer science and technology (school of big data), which has many similar courses, has a much higher teacher-student ratio than the school of software. according to the official website, the school currently has 14 professors, 27 associate professors, and 50 lecturers, a total of 91 people, including 11 doctoral supervisors and 50 master supervisors. it has one person in the national new century talent program, one expert enjoying special allowances from the state council, and two academic and technical leaders in shanxi province.

this year, the school of computer science and technology (big data school) of taiyuan university of technology has enrolled 157 students, less than one-tenth of the school of software. in the past three years, the school's enrollment has been similar to this year's. this means that even in the same school, the "student-teacher ratio" of computer science majors is much lower than that of software engineering majors.

so, will the school of software of taiyuan university of technology offer classes together with the school of computer science and technology (school of big data) and share teaching resources?

"we don't usually take classes together, but there will be some overlap when we are divided into different majors." said the aforementioned undergraduate student from the school of software at taiyuan university of technology. he told china news weekly that the school of software has been independent since the beginning of enrollment, while students from other majors need to study basic courses together at qiushi college in their freshman year, and then be assigned to various professional colleges in their sophomore year. in addition, the software engineering major is a "3+1" plan, with three years of study at the school and one year of internship at the base.

regarding the above issues, china newsweek contacted the publicity department of taiyuan university of technology. as of press time, the other party has not yet responded.

experts: teaching quality and sustainable planning must be considered

in addition to taiyuan university of technology, the number of students enrolled in software engineering majors at some universities in shanxi and henan this year is also quite astonishing.

as an agricultural university, shanxi agricultural university plans to enroll 1,230 students in software engineering this year, out of a total of 6,435. north university of china, also in shanxi, plans to enroll 1,600 students in software engineering this year.

some universities in henan province are similar. for example, henan normal university plans to enroll 1,980 students in software engineering this year, which is a non-teaching major, while the total number of students enrolled this year is about 10,000. zhengzhou university of light industry also enrolled more than 1,000 students in software engineering this year.

unlike general universities that only recruit science students for software engineering majors, henan university of finance and economics' software engineering major will enroll a total of 1,930 students this year, divided into two batches (undergraduate batch one and undergraduate batch two), 8 sub-directions, and 240 software engineering enrollment quotas will be allocated to liberal arts and history candidates.

"universities should have their own autonomy when setting up majors, but this autonomy should not only be based on a deep understanding of the job market, but must also consider teaching quality and sustainable planning," said chu zhaohui.

(at the request of the interviewee, li mingming is a pseudonym)

editor: sun xiaobo

operations editor: xiao ran