China shores up its evolving economy by ensuring it will have enough graduates with the skills to support it.
Over the last five years, China has been radically overhauling its undergraduate degree offerings. Just over 12,000 programmes have been cut and replaced with 10,200 new ones, changing the degrees on offer across the country by around 30%.
What are the changes?
The government first focused on ending degree programmes that it considered ‘outdated’ or ‘oversupplied’. This included arts, humanities, foreign languages and some management subjects.
Instead, new courses linked to AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing and data are now available for students to choose to study. Degrees in emerging technologies such as embodied intelligence are also beginning to appear, showing that the degree programmes on offer are being constantly reviewed.
A challenge for schools
This activity in China shows that its curriculum design is increasingly being shaped by labour-market demand and the changing economy that results from wider developments in technology.
This poses a conundrum for schools in how they prepare students for a moveable feast of higher education degrees, where the degree they start could be considered ‘outdated’ almost before they finish it.
A broad and balanced curriculum
It all comes down to what the purpose of education is in any country. If China is going all-out for technology over ‘outdated’ arts and humanities subjects, will other governments feel they need to do likewise to keep up?
Whatever happens, soft skills like creativity, communication and critical thinking are clearly important – and likewise for STEM skills. But ditching arts and humanities in a world where AI is ever more present may prove be a questionable choice, when there is much we can learn about ourselves from these subjects.
Keeping the curriculum broad and balanced to ensure a depth of learning across a variety of areas seems sensible for now – but will that belief soon become outdated itself as the world changes?
Other countries
As for other countries moving as fast as China has done to overhaul its higher education offer, certainly in some, that seems unlikely and that change will be more gradual. However, China sets us all an example: when it decides on a path, it moves quickly to carry it out – something that many in education often wish for.
References
- China’s universities cut 12,000 ‘obsolete’ majors in AI overhaul. Available at: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/tech/tech-news/china-s-universities-cut-12-000-obsolete-majors-in-ai-overhaul-5086857.html (Accessed 25 June 2026).
- China Cuts 12,200 University Programs, Replaces Many with AI Degrees. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/annaesakismith/2026/06/23/china-cuts-12200-university-programs-replaces-many-with-ai-degrees/ (Accessed 25 June 2026).
