China Daily:
On February 25, the Standing Committee of the State Council introduced a number of measures to encourage the employment of college graduates and migrant workers. Among them, the measures to expand the enrollment of postgraduate students and that increasing the number of students upgrading from junior college diploma to university degrees have attracted wide attention. I would like to ask vice minister of Education Weng Tiehui for more details on this. Thank you.
Weng Tiehui:
Thank you for your question. The expansion of the enrollment of postgraduate students and increasing of the number of students upgrading from junior college diploma to undergraduate degree is a major strategic decision made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, with the overall situation of China's economic and social development in mind. It is based on the current social situation and has a long-term aim. The Ministry of Education will do relevant work to implement those decisions and arrangements. First, we will make rational plans on the size of enrollment for different universities. With the strong support of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education will take comprehensive considerations of the national economic and social development demands, the financial support, and the conditions of running colleges in different places. At present there are around 440,000 postgraduate supervisors, and 12,000 programs for Master's degree. In recent years, more than 2,000 new graduate programs have been added. Based on our capability, we will determine the recruitment scale of different universities, giving more opportunities to universities in central, west and northeast China. This year, we have made a basic calculation and found out that the enrollment of postgraduate students may increase by 189,000 compared with the number of last year. The number of students upgrading from junior college diploma to undergraduate degree will increase by 322,000 compared with that of last year. Next, it is important to implement measures to make specific plans for different provinces and universities, which shall be carried out scientifically, match their education capacity and ensure their education quality.
Second, we will focus on areas that serve the national development strategy and meet the urgent needs of people's well-being. We will guide those enrolled students to choose subjects that meet social needs so that after their graduation, employment will not be a problem. At present, there is a shortage of talent in areas that serve the national development strategy and meet the urgent needs of people's well-being. The increased graduate programs will focus on clinical medicine, public health, integrated circuits, artificial intelligence and other fields, which mainly focuses on the training of professional degrees, especially application-oriented high-level professional degrees. The students upgrading from junior college diploma to undergraduate degrees will be guided to vocational education and application-oriented programs. Their future job positions will be in the fields of preventive medicine, emergency management, elderly care service management, e-commerce and other majors. These majors will be in high demand in the future according to our research.
Third, we will be very strict with the enrollment and the quality of the courses. The Ministry of Education will guide related colleges to take quality as the core and to strictly recruit and cultivate students. Thank you.
