As the national college entrance exam, known as the gaokao, commences this Sunday, approximately 12.9 million candidates on the Chinese mainland are discovering a broader horizon of academic opportunities. A series of new undergraduate programs have been introduced to ensure that the next generation of talent is equipped to meet the country's evolving strategic and industrial requirements.
According to a recently updated catalog from the Ministry of Education (MOE), universities are rolling out cutting-edge majors such as embodied intelligence, low-altitude economy and management, and marine intelligence and unmanned technologies. These additions reflect a calculated effort to modernize the academic structure and align it with the demands of a high-tech economy.
Zhang Nanxing, director of the Institute of Higher Education at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences, noted that the introduction of these programs underscores a continuous improvement in the structure of academic disciplines. This shift coincides with the outline of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), which emphasizes the orderly expansion of high-quality education, particularly in science, engineering, agriculture, and medicine.
Education Minister Huai Jinpeng has emphasized the importance of a coordinated talent cultivation mechanism. In a recent interview, Huai stated that the focus will be on aligning sci-tech innovation and industrial development with national strategic needs, particularly in critical fields such as integrated circuits and artificial intelligence.
A prime example of this strategic pivot is found at Sichuan University in southwest China. The institution has been approved to launch the country's first major in semiconductor process and equipment. Yang Yang, dean of the university's School of Electronics and Information Engineering, explained that the program is specifically designed to create a robust talent pipeline to support self-reliance across the entire integrated circuit industrial chain.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
