(Yicai) Aug. 29 -- China has issued a three-year action plan to optimize university majors in response to the accelerated technological revolution and industrial transformation to cultivate more high-level innovative and interdisciplinary talents.

The plan requires Chinese universities to introduce new programs with majors in strategic emerging industries and future industries, initiate interdisciplinary incubation efforts, and set up exemplary interdisciplinary research centers, according to a document issued yesterday by the Central Education Leading Group of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Meanwhile, existing disciplines will be optimized, the document showed. The government will issue warnings and require rectifications for existing programs with a lack of social demand, declining quality of education, and insufficient teaching resources.

Chinese universities had already begun reforming their programs before the release of the new document to align with demand from emerging and future industries.

Since February 2023, Chinese universities have added 3,229 new undergraduate programs and canceled 2,534 old ones, according to data from MyCOS Research Institute, a third-party education consulting firm. Engineering programs underwent the most adjustments, with 1,395 new programs added and 823 ones canceled.

The future direction of science and technology is still hard to predict and may not be what we expect today, Ding Kuiling, president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, recently told the media, including Yicai. The disciplinary structure of higher educational institutions must adapt to the characteristics of the new era and the future of technology, undergoing corresponding adjustments and reshaping, he added.

SJTU has established the Global Institute of Future Technology, which implements innovations in interdisciplinary programs and talent cultivation models, Ding noted. Students can choose different combinations of disciplines to create their own academic plans, such as 'electrochemistry + materials' or 'artificial intelligence + biology.'

A mechanical engineering professor at another university in China's C9 League told Yicai that more and more of their students have chosen to pursue interdisciplinary studies in fields such as AI after completing their undergraduate degrees to seek better and more diverse future career opportunities.

"Undergraduate education can only be considered general education, and the popular emerging engineering disciplines are mostly interdisciplinary," the professor noted.

The C9 League is an alliance of nine prestigious public Chinese universities. It comprises Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Nanjing University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Xi'an Jiao Tong University, and Zhejiang University, in alphabetical order.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione