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text/jizhi, special commentator of jiupai news

on september 13, the ministry of education’s website released the “notice of application materials for undergraduate majors of ordinary higher education institutions in 2024”. according to the notice, 535 new majors are planned to be added in 2024, involving 353 universities and colleges.

taking the zhujiang college of tianjin university of finance and economics, which is number 1 on the official list, as an example, it plans to add a finance major. for an independent college of a financial institution, it is legitimate to set up a finance major.

353 colleges and universities plan to add 535 new majors. what's the point? statistics show that among the newly added majors, football (39), cyberspace security (37), sports training (34), health and medical insurance (17), and geriatric medicine and health (14) rank in the top five.

many people may have been surprised by the fact that so many colleges and universities have added football majors. the 2026 world cup qualifiers for the top 18 in asia have already gone through two rounds, with the chinese national football team losing to japan 0-7 and saudi arabia 1-2 respectively, finishing last in the group. in recent years, the chinese men's football team has fallen into a trough, which is disappointing. against this backdrop, many colleges and universities have still added football majors, which is commendable.

the ministry of education released the results of the filing and approval of a new batch of undergraduate majors in ordinary colleges and universities on march 19 this year, showing that football has become a new major. the background is that the "implementation opinions on the reform and development of chinese youth football" issued by 12 departments including the general administration of sports and the national development and reform commission clearly proposed: to set up a football major and include it in the undergraduate (junior college) major catalog of colleges and universities, and to support and encourage schools with conditions to build football academies.

the establishment of the football major is intended to cultivate high-quality, compound, and applied football professionals with high theoretical literacy, good skills, strong teaching ability, and broad professional vision, who will be competent for football teaching, training, and competition organization in schools, professional sports teams, sports clubs, etc. this will be beneficial to improving the level of football in my country.

health and medical insurance, geriatric medicine and health are also majors that many universities are planning to add. it is predicted that by 2035, the number of people aged 60 and above in my country will exceed 400 million, accounting for more than 30%, entering a severe aging stage. by around 2050, the size and proportion of my country's elderly population will reach a peak. in response to the aging population, adding geriatric medicine and health majors is an urgent task.

for relevant universities, adding new majors is a systematic project. are the teaching staff sufficient after adding new majors? can they devote all their efforts to student training? if the students they train do not use what they have learned, what is the point of adding too many majors? we cannot simply equate major setting with employment. however, if the students they train cannot find jobs, the value of the new majors will decrease.

in addition, it should be noted that new majors should not be added blindly, but should be combined with their own realities, focusing on both national needs and actual conditions, and should not be set up just for the sake of setting up.

overall, this batch of newly added majors reflects that the relevant universities are based on their own development, adapting to the changes of the times, and cultivating talents needed by the country more accurately. in this regard, we should not only see that the relevant universities have added a batch of majors, but also see that the relevant universities have cancelled a batch of majors. according to reports, many domestic universities have successively released the 2024 major adjustment information. sichuan university plans to cancel 31 majors, lanzhou university plans to cancel 3 majors, xiangtan university plans to cancel 7 majors, and northwest agriculture and forestry university plans to cancel 3 majors.

some professionals have pointed out that the adjustment of majors should abandon utilitarianism and have their own background and persistence. traditional or "unpopular" majors should not be cancelled due to temporary difficulties. the same logic applies to adding new majors. whether adding or canceling, we should do it according to our ability. a major that suits our own development is a good major.