Recently, a number of "double first-class" universities issued notices to adjust the enrollment of master's students, and many popular majors were suspended.
Northeast Forestry University issued an announcement on the adjustment of master's enrollment majors in 2024, saying that from 2024 (the initial trial time is December 2023), the school's master's enrollment major catalog will be adjusted, of which three majors, including landscape architecture (code 083400), public administration (code 120400), and food processing and safety (code 095135), will stop enrolling.
The School of Computer Science of Northwestern Polytechnical University issued an announcement on the adjustment of the syllabus of the 2024 preliminary examination subjects, in which 083500 software engineering and 085410 artificial intelligence are no longer enrolled.
The School of Software of the University of Science and Technology of China issued the "Notice on Suspension of Enrollment of Software Engineering (083500) Master's Students" on May 31, and after the discussion and decision of the school's party-government joint meeting and submitted to the school for approval, starting from the 2024 level, the college will no longer recruit software engineering academic degree (083500) master's students, and the major has enrolled students to complete the training according to the original major. Other existing enrollment majors remain unchanged.
Many universities, stop recruiting
It is not surprising that the suspension of majors has been carried out, but the suspension of graduate majors in colleges and universities in recent years reflects some trends and characteristics.
Enrollment in some majors has been tightened
As mentioned earlier, the School of Software at the University of Science and Technology of China will no longer recruit master's degree students in software engineering, and the university also announced last year that it will stop recruiting master's degree students with academic degrees in law and journalism and communication from 2023. In recent years, many colleges and universities have stopped recruiting master's programs.
The School of Economics and the School of Software of Fudan University issued notices in 2021 and 2022 respectively to no longer admit academic degree master's students; In the 2022 Master's Admission Directory of the School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University, the master's degree in journalism and communication only admits students who are exempted, and the unified examination for master's degree is canceled; School of Public Administration of Sichuan University from the 2022 Master's Degree Admission Professional Catalog Examination, only recruits professional degrees in applied psychology, and no longer enrolls masters of applied psychology...
Part-time specialization is a trend
In 2022, the Central University of Finance and Economics' "Graduate Admission Announcement of the School of Social and Psychological Science" mentioned that the School of Social and Psychological Sciences will begin to recruit part-time master's degree students in applied psychology (economic and financial psychology) from 2023, and suspend the enrollment of full-time master's degree students in applied psychology; China University of Political Science and Law's 2023 Master's Enrollment Catalogue was announced, and the applied psychology degree only admits part-time master's students; The University of International Business and Economics announced in the "2022 Recruitment of Master's Degree Students" that the full-time enrollment of MBA (125100) is suspended, and the part-time normal enrollment ...
Graduate students have undergone great changes, and master's degrees and incomplete degrees have attracted attention
On the one hand, many colleges and universities have caused heated discussions about shrinking enrollment and stopping the enrollment of masters, and on the other hand, the expansion of specialized master's enrollment is also the general trend.
In recent years, the official policy has seen that professional degrees are highly valued. The "Professional Degree Postgraduate Education Development Plan (2020-2025)" issued by the Ministry of Education in 2020 mentioned that by 2025, the enrollment scale of master's degree postgraduate students will be expanded to about two-thirds of the total enrollment of master's degree students. The Notice of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council on Carrying out the Review of the Authorization of Doctoral and Master's Degrees in 2020 issued by the Ministry of Education clarifies that in principle, newly awarded institutions for master's degrees only carry out postgraduate education for professional degrees, and the authorization points for new doctoral degrees are tilted towards professional degrees.
The Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and the Ministry of Education released a new version of the Catalogue of Postgraduate Education Disciplines (2022) last year, adding 20 new professional degrees, and each subject category has professional degrees. The importance of application-oriented talents represented by masters is guaranteed in policy. The Measures for the Administration of the Catalogue of Graduate Education Disciplines also clearly delegate authority, allowing units authorized to independently carry out the pilot setting of first-level disciplines and professional degrees, and after being reviewed and approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, the pilot first-level disciplines and professional degrees may be compiled into the catalog.
Chen Zhiwen, editor-in-chief of China Education Online, said in an interview with The Paper that some colleges or majors in some colleges and universities have suspended the recruitment of masters, which is related to the adjustment of the strategic layout of talent training in the mainland, which is the result of the great development of higher education and the choice of differentiated positioning of some famous universities. The National Conference on Postgraduate Education held last year released a signal: the demand for high-level application-oriented professionals has increased, and master's students will no longer be positioned as research-oriented talents in the future, but will be trained as high-level application-oriented talents; Research-oriented academic talents are mainly cultivated through doctoral education.
In addition to master's degrees, part-time graduate students have also received a lot of attention.
In 2016, part-time graduate students officially entered the public eye. The Ministry of Education has made it clear that full-time and part-time postgraduate diplomas have the same legal status and the same effect. However, in 2021, the State Council inspection team found that in some provinces, "part-time" graduate students still have different treatment in employment than full-time graduate students.
Many enterprises and institutions have clearly enrolled full-time university bachelors and above, and there are obvious problems such as part-time graduate students in some regions not being able to enjoy talent introduction policies and related subsidies.
However, in the past two years, restrictions on incomplete in many places seem to be gradually relaxed. In 2022, the Office of Shijiazhuang Municipal People's Government issued the Notice on Including Part-time Master's Degree Graduates Recruited by the State into the Scope of One-time Employment and Relocation Subsidy for College Graduates; The talent introduction and settlement policy announced by the Hangzhou Municipal Government in 2022 states that full-time undergraduate and master's students in ordinary colleges and universities, and eligible part-time graduate students admitted after 2017, can "settle down first and then work" within two years of graduation. The recruitment announcements of "three supports and one support" and public teachers in Henan, Tianjin and other places clearly mentioned that part-time graduate students enrolled in 2017 and later enrolled by the state are treated equally with full-time graduate students...
According to China Business Daily, in 2023, judging from the application for graduate students in many universities in Shaanxi, the number of applicants may reach a new high. Compared with the master's degree application, the number of applicants for the master's degree has become an overwhelming advantage, which is also a significant feature of the postgraduate application in recent years. At the same time, there was also an increase in the number of part-time postgraduate applicants, i.e. the number of part-time postgraduate applicants. Zhang Zhao, deputy director of the Admissions Office of the Graduate School of Xi'an University of Technology, pointed out that the proportion of part-time master's students has gradually expanded, and the proportion of previous candidates has increased year by year.
Looking at the admission regulations of colleges and universities in recent years, it can be found that the admission of professional masters in many prestigious universities is gradually changing to part-time. Among them, the professional trend of applied psychology, MPAcc and other professions is obvious. Some experts have said that part-time is the future development trend of professional masters.
Every year, colleges and universities will adjust the enrollment majors and enrollment plans according to the policy situation, training situation, employment status, etc. In addition to the aforementioned reduction of master's enrollment and the expansion of specialized master's enrollment, part-time expansion of enrollment. Expanding the proportion of master's degrees and extending the master's degree system are also being implemented by more and more universities. However, no matter how colleges and universities adjust or reform, how to better improve the quality of postgraduate training is a problem that universities continue to think about.
Source: Maxx research compiled from People's Network, Ministry of Education, university websites, The Paper, Xinhua News Agency, local government websites, China Business Daily.