Recently, many Henan universities such as Luoyang Normal University, Henan University of Finance and Finance, and Zhengzhou University of Economics and Trade have launched the pre-filling of new undergraduate majors in 2024.
From the relevant information released by various schools, we noticed that at the end of June this year, the Office of the Henan Provincial Department of Education issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Pre-filling of the New Undergraduate Majors in Ordinary Colleges and Universities in 2024", requiring all colleges and universities to scientifically analyze and demonstrate the fit between the professional structure and the talent training positioning, the adaptability to the structure of the service industry, and the pertinence of professional and post needs in accordance with the principles of demand-oriented, conditional guarantee, appropriate scale and sustainable construction. The list of support catalogs for emerging future undergraduate majors and the list of undergraduate majors with control and restriction are continuously adjusted and optimized, taking into account the reduction and incremental optimization of major stocks.
89 majors were included in the list of urgently needed and special needs majors
Since 2022, the Henan Provincial Department of Education has released a list of urgently needed and special undergraduate majors for three consecutive years, as well as a list of new undergraduate majors with control restrictions.
In 2024, there will be a total of 89 majors in Henan Province's urgently needed and emerging future undergraduate majors, involving 7 major industrial clusters such as electronic information, new materials, advanced equipment, new energy vehicles, modern medicine, modern textile, and modern food, as well as many urgently needed fields such as health in the Central Plains, education modernization, digital economy, cultural tourism, cultural and creative industries, modern agriculture, emergency disaster reduction, standardized Henan, water resources protection and development, and emerging future.
In terms of majors, there are only a few majors, such as microelectronics science and engineering, intelligent vehicle engineering, integrated circuit design and integrated systems, intelligent perception engineering and other majors, which are distributed in colleges and universities in the province, and most of the majors are not yet opened by colleges and universities in the province.
Restrictions on overheating majors have been added
In terms of restricting the addition of majors, the Provincial Department of Education has comprehensively determined the control and restriction of disciplines and majors of the Ministry of Education, the distribution of majors in colleges and universities in the province, the employment rate of graduates, and social needs, and has included 67 majors in the list of new undergraduate majors under control and restriction in Henan Province in 2024, 21 new majors have been added and 7 have been cancelled compared with the 2023 list, and the overall number has increased by 14. Among them, there are relatively many majors in computer science (6), business administration (5), design (5), and drama and film and television (5).
Excessive duplication of majors and distribution of majors may lead to a surplus of talents, oversupply, and a negative impact on the employment of graduates.
Among the new undergraduate majors in Henan Province, there are 40 majors with more than 20 points, including some popular majors and emerging majors that have been sought after in recent years. For example, computer-related computer science and technology, data science and big data technology, software engineering, Internet of Things engineering and other majors, with more than 40 points. Computer science and technology, data science and big data technology are also on the list for the first time.
In addition to Henan Province, a number of provinces have previously announced the list of restricted undergraduate majors in the annual undergraduate major setting work, or other major optimization work, and made it clear that majors with too many points will not be added in principle.
For example, in July last year, the Office of the Fujian Provincial Department of Education issued a notice on optimizing the setting of majors, which made it clear that undergraduate majors (including 16 majors such as electronic information engineering, international economics and trade, financial management, English, computer science and technology, data science and big data technology) with more than 50% of the number of undergraduate colleges and universities in the province will not be added in principle.
In order to avoid a large number of repeated "overheating" majors, Jiangxi Province requires strict control of majors with more than 15 distribution points in the province (except for majors in urgent need). Although the relevant notice does not clearly announce the list of restricted majors, according to the "Jiangxi Province 2021-2022 Academic Year Undergraduate Teaching Quality Analysis Report on Colleges and Universities", it can be seen that the top 10 undergraduate majors in the province in this academic year are English, computer science and technology, marketing, e-commerce, electronic information engineering, visual communication design, environmental design, international economics and trade, financial management, and accounting, with more than 27 locations.
In addition, in the 2023 undergraduate major setting of colleges and universities in Sichuan Province, the undergraduate majors with an initial employment rate lower than the average employment rate in 2022, more than 15 locations in the province, more than 300 students, and music, dance, and drama art majors with an employment rate lower than the average employment rate will be included in the list of provincial controlled majors.
In principle, Heilongjiang Province does not support the establishment of majors with more than 50% of the province's undergraduate colleges and universities, or majors with an average employment rate of less than 80% in the province.
Computer majors "cool down"
Through the combing of the list of restricted majors announced by various places, we found that some computer majors that are favored by the parents of candidates have appeared among them. Especially at the moment when calling for "big data talents", Henan, Fujian and other provinces have taken the initiative to "cool down" such majors, which is even more concerning.
For example, the "data science and big data technology" major, which is still popular today, has reached 768 records since 2015, when mainland undergraduate colleges and universities have deployed big data talent training (excluding the adjustment of degree awarding categories).
Judging from the record and approval of majors over the years, the major of "data science and big data technology" has seen explosive growth in 2017~2019, with a total of 584 new majors in three years. However, in the following four years, the number of filings for this profession has dropped significantly.
The schools that offer this major cover the "double first-class" colleges and universities, local undergraduate colleges, and from the initial mainly concentrated in comprehensive and engineering colleges, to now many colleges and universities in finance and economics, teachers, medicine, sports, and languages have been opened. Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, and Jiangsu are the largest provinces to be added.
In addition to the excessive number of professional locations, the quality of its talent training also deserves further attention.
From the perspective of national data, the latest research of Max found that the 2023 class of data science and big data technology undergraduates have a job-related major correlation of 62%, which is much lower than the same class of engineering graduates (72%) and the national undergraduate average (73%).
An in-depth analysis of the reasons why they are engaged in professional and unrelated work shows that "not meeting the requirements of professional-related work" is the most important factor, accounting for 25%. Similar problems are also reflected in many computer majors such as Internet of Things Engineering, Intelligent Science and Technology, and Computer Science and Technology.
Although national data shows that computer science graduates still have strong competitiveness in the job market, data science and big data technology, Internet of Things engineering and other majors have also been among the top 10 high-paying undergraduate majors for many years. However, there must be differences in the degree of demand for relevant talents in different regions, as well as the quality of professional training in various schools.
If colleges and universities do not consider the characteristics of their own schools, the faculty and the needs of the local industry, they simply follow the trend because of "popularity", it is likely to cause the poor quality of the training of the major, and eventually become the target of the optimization and adjustment of the major.
After experiencing a large-scale "wave of withdrawal" of management majors such as information management and information systems and public affairs management, some provinces may have lit up the "early warning light" for computer majors.
Key references:
[1] Fujian: Optimize the setting of undergraduate majors, and the majors with more distribution will no longer be added[EB/OL]. Retrieved 2023-07-25 . Fujian Provincial Department of Education.
[2] Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Establishment of Undergraduate Majors in Ordinary Colleges and Universities in 2023[EB/OL]. Retrieved 2023-07-21 . Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education.
[3] Max Research Institute. 2024 China undergraduate employment report[M]. 1. Social Sciences Academic Press, 2024.
[4] Websites of the Ministry of Education and provincial education departments.