China’s Ministry of Education has fast-tracked approvals for 29 new university major courses in an effort to address the country’s “most urgent strategic needs” as it tries to develop the talent to compete with the United States.
The ministry’s announcement on Tuesday comes as the nation faces stiff American tariffs on its exports and strict sanctions on critical technologies like advanced semiconductors, forcing the country to seek technological self-reliance and new growth sectors to revitalise its stalled economy.
In announcing its latest list of undergraduate majors of Chinese tertiary education institutions this year, the ministry said this was the first time it had activated the “extraordinary mechanism” to greenlight the courses.
“They are for the strategic areas that the central government has recently identified and paid close attention to,” the ministry said.
Universities must normally submit applications for new disciplines one year in advance. But this year, the ministry was allowed to authorise late applications, as well as encourage several universities to implement important new majors, according to the statement.
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Among the new majors, Beijing Foreign Studies University will launch “Regional Country Studies” in the next academic year, focusing on China’s geostrategic neighbourhood.
