Town Online 2021: 03: 03.15: 15
A robot welcomes freshmen to the campus of Fudan University in Shanghai on September 12, 2020. [Foto / Xinhua]
Beijing, 03/03/2021 (People Online) – Artificial intelligence has become the hottest new major in Chinese universities for the second year in a row amid the country’s push to build a strong AI talent pool. The popularity of the subject is far above that of any other new specialization.
A list issued by the Education Ministry on Monday said universities across the country applied to establish 2,046 new majors last year, and 130 universities received approval to establish four-year majors related to artificial intelligence. In 2019, 180 universities established majors in artificial intelligence, making it the number one new major in that year as well.
Many prestigious universities, including Tsinghua University in Beijing, Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, and South Central University in Changsha, Hunan Province, offer the new specialty.
Other popular majors include smart engineering and manufacturing, offered by 84 colleges as a major, and data science and big data technology, at 62 colleges.
According to a plan issued by the ministry to promote artificial intelligence education, universities will enhance the discipline of artificial intelligence, advance basic theory and key technology research, and become central forces for major global innovation from artificial intelligence by 2030.
Public affairs management was the least preferred major last year, having been dropped by 21 universities, followed by information management, dropped by 16 universities, and electronic information science and technology, with 15 cancellations.
The main reason universities open or eliminate certain majors has to do with graduates’ ability to find employment, said Chen Zhiwen, editor-in-chief of the online education portal EOL.
A glut of management graduates with no work experience appears to have affected the attractiveness of the field, Chen said. Also, those students may not understand that you can spend years working in a rank until you reach a high-paying managerial position, even with a college degree.
Meanwhile, many Chinese universities have set out to improve AI education and nurture more AI talent by establishing new AI specialties, departments and research institutes, he said.
However, the threshold for teaching artificial intelligence is high as the specialization is complicated and interdisciplinary, so universities without adequate resources and competent professors should refrain from establishing the specialty, Chen said.
Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Educational Research Institute in Beijing, said universities should not simply chase the latest trend in new careers, as many careers that are now being canceled used to be popular.
Graduates from popular majors may also have a hard time landing good jobs if they don’t pay enough attention to a college’s strength in the major, he said.
(Web editor: Wu Sixuan, Zhao Jian)
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