China News Service, March 19. According to the website of the Ministry of Education, the head of the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education responded to reporters’ questions on the “Notice on the Announcement of the Registration and Approval Results of Undergraduate Majors in General Universities in 2023.”
The full text is as follows:
1. Please briefly introduce the basic situation of this professional filing and approval work.
Answer:
To implement the requirements of the "Reform Plan for Adjustment and Optimization of the Subject and Major Settings of General Higher Education" (hereinafter referred to as the "Reform Plan") issued by the Ministry of Education and other five departments, and in accordance with the "Management Regulations on the Setting of Undergraduate Majors in General Higher Education Institutions", the Ministry of Education organized and carried out The establishment and adjustment of undergraduate majors in general colleges and universities in 2023.
After declaration, publicity, review and other procedures, 1,456 new registered majors, 217 approved majors (including 160 nationally controlled majors and 57 new majors outside the catalog) were added, and 46 majors were adjusted in degree award category or length of study. .
At the same time, 1,670 professional points applied for cancellation by some colleges and universities have been put on record.
In addition, 24 new majors, including electronic information materials, soft matter science and engineering, high-power semiconductor science and engineering, biological breeding technology, ecological restoration, and health science and technology, have been officially included in the undergraduate major catalog, with a total of 816 majors in the catalog.
2. How effective has it been in optimizing the professional structure through professional setting and adjustment?
Answer:
Major registration and approval work is not only an annual routine task to dynamically adjust the setting of undergraduate majors in colleges and universities, but also to implement the "Reform Plan" to continuously enhance the support and contribution of education to high-quality development, and to cultivate national strategic talents and urgently needed talents in a targeted manner. important practices.
A total of 3,389 professional points were involved in the addition, cancellation, and adjustment of majors.
There were 1,673 new ones and 1,670 canceled ones, and the number was basically the same.
Engineering, education, economics and other disciplines ranked among the top three in terms of increase in number of professional points, while management, art and other disciplines saw a relative decrease in the number of professional points.
From the perspective of subject categories, engineering has the largest number of professional points, with 1,322, accounting for 39%. This echoes the basic situation that engineering is the first major subject category; from the perspective of regional layout, the professional points involved in central and western universities are: 1802, accounting for 53.17%.
In general, the professional structure and regional layout have been further optimized, and colleges and universities have become more rational in setting up majors.
3. What are the characteristics of this professional setting and adjustment work?
Answer:
This professional setting and adjustment work mainly has the following four major features:
The first is to serve the national strategy.
Think about what the country thinks, address the country's urgent needs, and respond to the country's needs. Oriented to serve high-quality economic and social development, new majors such as national security, electronic information materials, biological breeding technology, and ecological restoration have been added to support Colleges and universities have added a number of urgently needed majors such as digital economy, integrated circuit design and integrated systems.
The second is to target regional needs.
Implement the deployment requirements put forward by the Ministry’s party group that “higher education should serve regional economic and social development and optimize layout and structure” deployment requirements, strengthen provincial coordination, and guide local universities to add intelligent manufacturing projects, new energy vehicle projects, smart agriculture, The development of regional key industries such as intelligent mining engineering is in urgent need of expertise.
The third is to strengthen cross-integration.
Guided by the construction of new engineering, new medical, new agricultural, and new liberal arts, we will promote the integration of industry and education, and the integration of science and education, add new majors such as cross-cutting engineering, health science and technology, intelligent vision engineering, and engineering software, and support colleges and universities to add a new major. Batch professional points such as intelligent construction, network and new media, and virtual reality technology.
The fourth is to highlight employment orientation.
Further strengthen the linkage between employment and professional settings, and encourage each province to combine the actual industrial development of the region to sort out 223 majors with relatively low employment rates, providing important reference for universities to adjust their professional structure.
Consolidate the main responsibilities of colleges and universities, and clearly require colleges and universities to prudently add and promptly reduce majors that have low employment rates and do not meet social needs.
4. In the past year, what new measures have been taken to adjust professional settings?
Answer:
First, according to the changes in economic and social development needs, dynamically adjust the majors controlled by the state to better play the guiding role of the undergraduate major catalog.
During this major setting work, the motion to adjust the scope of state-controlled majors proposed by the Education Steering Committee of each major was reviewed. After special discussions, voting and other procedures, resource exploration engineering, nursing, and midwifery were adjusted to state-controlled majors. major.
The second is to further strengthen the overall planning and management of provincial disciplines and majors.
The provincial education administrative departments are required to strengthen the development planning of disciplines and majors, and guide qualified colleges and universities to add urgently needed majors based on the needs of economic and social development and actual conditions in the region.
Based on the actual development of local industries, each province has sorted out 520 urgently needed majors and guided universities to set up majors based on service needs.
The third is to pilot the pre-declaration system for professional settings and further improve the management mechanism for professional settings.
Colleges and universities are required to plan in advance to add majors based on the needs of economic and social development, their own school-running positioning, and school-running conditions.
When colleges and universities apply to add majors (excluding Sino-foreign cooperative education majors and second bachelor's degree majors), in principle, they should be included in the school's discipline and major development plan, and pre-application should be made one year in advance.
At present, 760 colleges and universities have submitted pre-application materials for majors planned to be added in 2024 through a special website, involving 634 majors and 2,965 professional points.
5. What are your considerations for further improving professional settings?
Answer:
Since the issuance of the "Reform Plan for the Adjustment and Optimization of the Subject and Major Settings of General Higher Education", we have implemented "one case per province" and "one policy per school".
In response to the new situation and new demands faced by the current major establishment work in colleges and universities, the "Notice on Further Improving the Establishment of Undergraduate Majors in General Universities" is being developed to refine and supplement the reform plan and major establishment management regulations, and further improve the policy system framework.
The first is to strengthen dynamic adjustment, implement the annual update and release mechanism of the professional catalog, improve the setting and adjustment mechanism of undergraduate majors, dynamically adjust the state-controlled majors and special majors, and enhance the importance of higher education to high-quality development through "small steps and fast running" responsiveness and support.
The second is to strengthen quality and characteristics. By implementing major pre-declaration systems, strengthening the demonstration and publicity of additional majors, etc., we will improve the quality of major settings, guide colleges and universities to strengthen their advantageous specialty majors, and avoid simply following the trend.
The third is to strengthen provincial coordination and guidance, promote provincial education administrative departments to serve regional economic and social development, guide colleges and universities to add majors related to strategic emerging industries, majors that are urgently needed for regional development, and build specialty and advantageous professional groups.