Writing's on the wall for out-of-sync university majors

As China revamps its undergraduate programs to better serve national development, an increasing number of university majors are either being revoked or adjusted.

According to the list of undergraduate program applications and approvals published recently by the Ministry of Education, more than 5,000 programs were discontinued between 2019 and 2024, showing an overall upward trend.

While 367 programs were removed in 2019, the number surged to 925 in 2022 and reached a record high of 1,670 in 2023. Last year, 1,428 majors were revoked.