new majors in colleges and universities, what’s new?
2024-09-14
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original title: new majors in universities, what’s new about them?
wang meihua, reporter of people's daily overseas edition
it's the start of the school year again, and colleges and universities are welcoming freshmen of the class of 2024. a batch of new majors are making their debut - according to a notice issued by the ministry of education, this year 24 new majors will be officially included in the undergraduate major catalog and will be offered in 54 colleges and universities.
what is new about the new majors? what trends in talent development do they reveal? what are the employment prospects of these new majors?
closely align with strategic needs
at the beginning of the new semester, beijing agricultural college recruited students for the first time for its biological breeding technology major. yin zhiye, a young man from hebei, was one of the 30 freshmen. he was admitted to this new major with the first place.
"i am very interested in modern agriculture, so i chose biological breeding technology when applying for the major." yin zhiye said, "seeds are called the 'chips' of modern agriculture, and seed safety is linked to food security. i hope to study hard in my major and contribute to the country's seed industry in the future."
in order to cultivate high-quality professional and technical talents in the field of coffee, yunnan agricultural university established the country's first "coffee science and engineering" undergraduate major this year. the first batch of coffee undergraduate students from 11 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities started their new university life at the college of tropical crops of yunnan agricultural university in pu'er, yunnan.
the picture shows coffee major students experiencing coffee cupping in a coffee cognition class. photo by xinhua news agency reporter hu chao
sun qingpeng, professor of the department of agronomy, college of plant science and technology, beijing agricultural college, said that the school’s new biobreeding technology major is intended to meet the strategic needs of national food security and high-quality agricultural development, and to cultivate compound application-oriented agricultural and forestry talents with high comprehensive quality, reasonable knowledge structure, strong practical ability, innovative spirit and entrepreneurial ability to serve the modern seed industry and related fields.
biological breeding technology, intelligent marine equipment, intelligent material technology, soft matter science and engineering... judging from the names, the newly added majors in colleges and universities are full of scientific and technological sense. the person in charge of the higher education department of the ministry of education said that the ministry of education guides and supports colleges and universities to open new majors urgently needed for national strategies and regional development, and cultivates national strategic talents and urgently needed talents in a targeted manner.
a careful review of the new professional catalog reveals that most of the new majors, from biotechnology, new materials to basic software and artificial intelligence, are based on serving national strategic needs, focusing on scientific frontiers and key technology fields, and have positive significance for solving "bottleneck" technical problems.
southwest jiaotong university has opened a major in "high-power semiconductor science and engineering". song wensheng, deputy dean of the school of microelectronics at the university, said that this new major is aimed at the strategic needs of the country's industrial semiconductor industry and has great development potential in the fields of new energy, rail transportation, electric vehicles, industrial automation data centers, and artificial intelligence computing power supply.
at present, china is accelerating the pace of optimizing and adjusting disciplines. not long ago, the ministry of education issued a notice on the establishment of undergraduate majors in ordinary colleges and universities in 2024, proposing to increase the adjustment of undergraduate majors and focus on optimizing the professional structure and talent training structure that are compatible with the new development pattern.
experts said that dynamically adjusting university majors in accordance with the needs of economic and social development and adding new majors around major national strategies will help cultivate compound elite talents with a broad knowledge base and innovation capabilities who can lead future technological and industrial changes.
significant cross-integration characteristics
in addition to closely connecting national strategies with regional needs, the 24 new majors also reflect strong interdisciplinary and cross-integration characteristics. majors such as chinese classics focus on promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of china's excellent traditional culture; majors such as sports health care and football focus on serving the strategic needs of a healthy china and implementing the deployment of building a strong sports nation.
many new majors focus on cross-integration in their curriculum settings. the sports and health care major offered by guangzhou sport institute sets up relevant professional courses based on the concept of "integration of sports and medicine", focusing on strengthening the cross-integration of sports and health management, preventive intervention, health care, and healthy aging.
shanghai jiao tong university has newly established a major in health science and technology this year. wang jingchuan, vice president of the university's puyuan future technology college, said that the new major integrates multiple disciplines such as science, engineering, and medicine. through the cross-integration of artificial intelligence, big data, virtual reality technology, bioinformatics, genetic technology, preventive medicine, sports translational medicine and other knowledge content, it explores the health laws of life from conception, growth to aging, and is committed to cultivating strategic leading talents who will lead future health science and technology innovation for mankind.
wang jingchuan introduced that in terms of curriculum setting, the college has established a multidisciplinary cross-integration curriculum system, offering cross-disciplinary professional courses that break the boundaries of learning and disciplines. students can flexibly choose a suitable combination of course modules to study according to their personal interests, specialties and career aspirations, thereby building a personalized training program. "at the same time, we will also work with well-known companies to build teaching laboratories and internship training bases." he said.
with broad development space
according to a relevant official from the ministry of education, the 24 new undergraduate majors added this year have been fully demonstrated, and the universities that have passed the approval to set up new majors have met the relevant requirements.
"the addition of a new major must be carefully demonstrated, such as the major's courses, faculty, teaching conditions, etc." zhou tianhua, director of the department of higher education of the ministry of education, said that the ministry of education will also specially organize experts to provide specific opinions and suggestions on all professional application materials to ensure the quality of professional construction.
for students, choosing a new major means choosing a new path. regarding the employment prospects of new majors, several admissions office managers of universities involved in the newly added majors said that these majors focus on national strategies, are closely related to the current economic and social development needs, and have a relatively broad space for development.
sun qingpeng said that graduates of the biobreeding technology major can choose to enter agricultural enterprises or biotechnology companies in the future to participate in the research, development and practice of biobreeding projects; they can also engage in scientific research or teaching in scientific research institutions or universities; they can also find employment opportunities in the field of agricultural information technology, such as participating in the analysis and application of agricultural big data and promoting the development of smart agriculture.
wang jingchuan said that with the acceleration of the aging process of the population, the society's demand for health management and medical services is growing. graduates of the health science and technology major can engage in health science research, relevant policy formulation, health data analysis, disease prevention and control, equipment research and development, etc. in medical institutions, public health departments, universities and scientific research institutions, and the big health industry. in addition, the continuous advancement of health technology also provides more employment opportunities for graduates.
source: people's daily overseas edition
