Unpopular majors are on fire? The demand for students has increased, innovative training models have been introduced, and the popularity of history majors such as archaeology has increased

For a long time in the past, history majors in universities were relatively unpopular subjects. However, there have been obvious changes in recent years, not only the archaeology major has gradually become popular, but also the admission score line of history majors in some 985 colleges and universities has been at the middle level of liberal arts majors.

The reason for this is that in recent years, the rapid development of cultural and museum undertakings in mainland China has led to the continuous improvement of the number and quality of museums across the country, and there is a greater demand for students in history, especially archaeology, cultural and museum fields. At the same time, many places through the innovation of the training model, for the grassroots cultural protection to lay a solid foundation for talents, this year in some provinces, this major appeared in the employment of admission, and with the establishment, such as Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, have announced a new "cultural relics" undergraduate publicly-funded targeted enrollment plan, in archaeology and other related majors under the training.

In May 2022, the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics and other 5 departments issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Free Targeted Training of Cultural Relics General Talents in 2022", proposing that 600 cultural relics general talents will be trained in 117 counties (cities and districts) in the province for five consecutive years. After graduation, the general talents of cultural relics will directly go to the county (city, district) and below the cultural relics protection institutions for targeted employment, and will be established for the cause after entry; The tuition, accommodation, textbook fees, internship fees, and living allowances that are exempted from paying during the study period of the cultural relics shall be borne by the provincial treasury and included in the annual budget of the training institution to be guaranteed. This is Shanxi's first cultural relics training model, which is the first case in the national cultural relics system.

Shandong Province plans to enroll the first batch of 60 students this year, candidates sign a targeted training agreement when they enroll, free of tuition, free of accommodation, and directly enter the province's city, county and district-level institutions after graduation to work for no less than 5 years.

Shaanxi Province has also started the implementation of the publicly-funded targeted training of cultural relics talents since 2024, and it is clear that in 2024, it will be oriented to 10 cities and 32 counties (cities and districts) in the province to train cultural relics talents at public expense, with an enrollment plan of 57 people, with an enrollment major of archaeology and museology (cultural relics), and a training university of Xi'an University of Arts and Sciences.

At the same time, in recent years, the application popularity of history majors, including archaeology, culture and museums, has also increased significantly.

Yicai found that the admission score line of history majors in some colleges and universities has improved significantly by querying the admission score line of various colleges and universities, and the admission score line of history majors in many 985 universities in coastal areas is at the middle level, which is very different from the enrollment and admission of history majors in previous years.

"I was applying for a few popular majors at the time, but I didn't get enough points, so I transferred to history." Chen Ming (pseudonym), who was admitted to a 985 university in 2002 and is currently working in Guangzhou, recalled that a large proportion of the students in the class at that time were transferred.

Nowadays, more and more children are filling in their preferences according to their interests and hobbies, and the number of students majoring in history has increased significantly.

Lin Changzhang, an associate professor at the School of History and Cultural Heritage of Xiamen University, told Yicai that in the past, many students were transferred to history majors, but now not only do they apply for history majors, but also there are significantly more students who change majors to history majors after admission.

Mr. Zhang, who was admitted to a university of finance and economics in the 90s of the last century and is currently working in Guangzhou, said that he was very interested in history at that time and his grades in history were also very good, but in the end, due to the consideration of employment prospects, at the request of his parents, he still applied for a popular major. Nowadays, many parents have good economic conditions, and many children are considering studying majors no longer only for "money", but also for choosing majors according to their own interests and hobbies.

Liu Chao, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the School of History of Wuhan University, said: "In the past two years, our School of History has been transferred in more than transferred out. We often ask students, why didn't you choose a history major when you filled out your application? Some students said that there were no recruits or only one or two of the history majors in our school in the local provinces, so they could only be admitted to other majors first, and then apply to transfer to the history major in the second semester of their freshman year. ”

There are also students who like history majors who fill in other majors according to their parents' wishes, but after admission, they find that they are really not interested in their majors, and finally apply to transfer to history majors.

Liu Chao said that when some students filled in the college entrance examination, they filled in other majors according to their parents' wishes, but after studying for a period of time, they really couldn't read anymore. "Every year when we change majors, we ask, do your parents agree with changing majors? The students all said that after consulting with the parents, the parents agreed to respect the children's choices. Because for students, if they are not interested in the major, it will be very painful and confusing, and in the end, parents often compromise. ”

Liu Chao said that in the past two years, whether it was when the undergraduate history class was divided into majors after admission, or when they changed majors to the School of History, there were more people who chose archaeology, mainly because they were interested and because they liked it.

In terms of employment, what is the current employment situation of history graduates?

A professor of history at a pair of non-normal universities in southern China said that there are big differences in the training goals and employment conditions of most students majoring in history in normal colleges and comprehensive key universities; in his school, about seventy or eighty percent of the students majoring in history go to middle school to become teachers after graduation, and the rest mainly go on to further studies, and a small number of them take the public examination or go to work in enterprises.

The key comprehensive universities, especially the history undergraduates in the 985 school, have a higher proportion of graduate students, and the overall proportion of graduate students is high. At the master's level, the main employment destinations of students majoring in history include working as teachers in cultural and museum departments in various places, middle schools in central cities, public examinations, and publishing houses. Doctoral graduates mainly go to colleges and universities at all levels, and some choose to become teachers in key middle schools in big cities. Among them, a considerable number of newly hired teachers in key middle schools in some big cities are master's or even doctoral students from famous schools.

Professor Yang Guoan, dean of the School of History of Wuhan University, said that in recent years, the School of History of Wuhan University has established internship bases through cooperation with many middle schools to help students increase their internship experience and make up for the shortcomings in these aspects. Nowadays, more and more people choose to become teachers in middle schools after graduating with a master's degree in history, "Two of the master's degrees I graduated this year went to Shenzhen middle schools to become teachers. ”

In the view of many history teachers, another important reason for the increase in the scores of history majors is that some of the once popular liberal arts majors are now fiercely competitive and the pressure to find a job is very high.

Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, wrote an analysis that the "hot and cold" from the perspective of employment changes with the changes in social needs.

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, said in an interview with the media that the popularity and unpopularity of majors are relative and changeable, and students should uphold the principle of "interest-oriented" when facing the so-called unpopular majors, and do not need to deliberately avoid or blindly follow. In Chu Zhaohui's view, only in the field that he loves and is good at, can he maximize his or her potential, and even if it is an unpopular major, it can become an important path to success. On the contrary, if you blindly choose a major that lacks interest, it may lead to poor learning results and difficulty in developing your strengths in popular fields.

Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhao Hanlu Text Editor: Dong Siyun Source of the title map: Shangguan title map

Source: Author: Yicai