By South China Morning Post
Publication Date: 2026-06-14 03:00:00
China’s universities are undertaking a massive restructuring of their academic offerings to better align higher education with the country’s development goals. In the process, thousands of so-called outdated degrees will be eliminated in favor of new, technology-oriented programs.
The comprehensive campaign comes as China struggles to become a global leader in a range of high-tech areas “Future Industries” and solve a difficult problem Graduate jobs crisiswhich has left millions of young people struggling to find work.
Between 2021 and 2025, China’s higher education institutions canceled or suspended 12,200 bachelor’s degree programs while introducing 10,200 new ones, meaning more than 30 percent of the country’s university programs were adjusted, according to education ministry data cited by Xinhua.
Many of the new programs are now closely aligned with Beijing’s economic development goals. For example, nine universities have added new majors embodied intelligencewhich…
