A few days ago, the website of the Ministry of Education released the "2024 Announcement of Application Materials for Undergraduate Majors in Ordinary Colleges and Universities". According to statistics, 535 new majors are planned in 2024 (excluding record-filing majors), of which 171 are new majors that have not yet been included in the undergraduate major catalog.
Among these new majors not included in the catalogue, 60 majors have been awarded management degrees, accounting for more than one-third.
In recent years, the management profession that has been questioned because of the large-scale revocation seems to be undergoing a round of "big change" with the promotion of the "four new constructions".
A large number of management majors have been abolished
First of all, it should be noted that the discipline category of the major is not necessarily exactly the same as the category of the degree awarded by it, but it is generally the same.
For example, in 2018~2022, the largest number of information management and information systems majors were withdrawn, and most universities awarded them management degrees, and a few schools awarded them engineering degrees. Different degrees are awarded in different disciplines, and their teaching focuses on different levels – management focuses on information systems management, and engineering focuses on computer science and technology.
In the past few years, in the large-scale adjustment of undergraduate majors experienced by mainland universities, the number of majors that have been withdrawn from awarding management degrees has increased year after year, reaching 183 in 2022, more than three times that of 2018.
The largest number of cancellations were made in public utilities management (97), followed by information management and information systems (72) and marketing (51).
The withdrawal of some undergraduate majors by colleges and universities is usually based on a variety of factors. The most immediate driver is changes in the job market.
Taking public service management as an example, this major was once widely offered across the country, but due to the disconnection between the professional content and the actual job market, many graduates of public service management in colleges and universities are faced with the dilemma of narrow employment scope and lack of competitiveness when looking for jobs.
According to the 2023 China Undergraduate Employment Report, the monthly income (5,313 yuan), employment satisfaction (70%), and job-related degree (53%) of the 2022 graduates majoring in public service management are lower than the average level of similar majors (5,843 yuan per month in management, 75% in employment satisfaction, and 67% in job-related majors).
Similar information management and information systems majors face the same dilemma. Despite the booming IT industry, some universities have failed to keep up with industry demand, resulting in a mismatch between graduates' skills and market demand.
The demand for management talents is "big change"
At a time when the majors that confer management degrees are experiencing a "wave of revocation", there are also a number of new "management" majors that have become the objects of competition for colleges and universities.
Since 2019, 16 majors (including 2 majors that can award different degrees) have been added to the catalogue. According to the data of the Sunshine College Entrance Examination website, such as cross-border e-commerce (108), emergency management (39), pension service management (29), and medical insurance (22), have been opened by a large number of colleges and universities.
The large-scale increase and withdrawal of majors reflects that with the social and economic development, the demand for managerial talents in different fields in the job market is changing.
For another example, in 2023, the Ministry of Education will issue the "Guide to Guiding Majors for Serving Health Undertakings and Cultivating Talents in the Health Industry" to guide colleges and universities to accelerate the layout and construction of five new medical majors that are adaptable and leading.
In 2024, colleges and universities will apply for the largest number of new majors outside the catalog, which are the health and medical security, geriatrics and health, and pharmaceutical economics and management majors included in the above documents. All of them are awarded degrees in management, and from the perspective of the main disciplines, these new majors emphasize the characteristics of cultivating interdisciplinary talents and meeting the needs of society.
It is not easy to approve a new major
There are a large number of majors to be added, but they may not all be approved in the end. Whether it is a state-controlled major or a new major established in a university for the first time, its addition needs to be strictly approved.
In September last year, the Ministry of Education issued the "2023 Announcement on the Application Materials for Undergraduate Majors in Ordinary Colleges and Universities", and a total of 525 undergraduate majors (excluding record-filing majors) were declared by universities, of which 162 were new majors.
Combined with the statistics of the "2023 Filing and Approval Results of Undergraduate Majors in Ordinary Colleges and Universities" officially announced, it can be seen that the final approval rate of the majors with public application materials is 41%.
It is more difficult for new majors that have not yet been listed in the undergraduate program catalog to get approved. Only 35% of the 162 new majors were approved.
Statistics show that among the majors with a large number of declarations, football (75%), veterinary public health (71%), biological breeding science (64%), cyberspace security (59%), sports training (57%), information security (57%) and other majors have a higher approval rate. Some of these majors are also mentioned in several documents issued by the Ministry of Education as "urgently needed talents".
For example, biological breeding science is a new agricultural science major set up in 2022, which focuses on solving the key scientific and "bottleneck" technical problems in the creation of excellent varieties to meet the strategic needs of ensuring national food security and promoting high-quality agricultural development. In 2023, 14 universities will apply and 9 universities will be approved. So far, 18 colleges and universities have opened them.
Judging from the current application of the proposed additional majors in 2024, most of them also emphasize that they should be guided by the high-quality development needs of the industry and society, and will be based on the school's positioning, in line with the characteristics of the school's talent training, with stable social talent needs and development prospects, relying on related disciplines and majors, and having corresponding professional school-running conditions (including teachers, teaching and auxiliary teams, experimental sites, instruments and equipment, etc.) as the necessary conditions for professional declaration.
The addition of majors in colleges and universities cannot simply follow the trend, and the opening of new majors cannot be the superposition of popular concepts. Each university has its own focus area, and on the basis of preliminary research, it is necessary to add majors urgently needed for social development according to its own advantageous disciplines or majors, which is the guarantee to improve the quality of major settings.
Key references:
[1] Ministry of Education, Sunshine College Entrance Examination and other websites.
[2] Wang Feng. Management is "not fragrant"? The number of professional revocations has dominated the list year after year! [EB/OL]. Retrieved 2022-06-02. 21st Century Business Herald.
[3] The anxiety of the last class: where will the graduates go after the major is abolished? [EB/OL]. Retrieved 2024-09-13. Blackboard Insights.