China’s universities cut 12,000 ‘obsolete’ degrees amid race to embrace AI era

China's universities have revoked or suspended 12,200 undergraduate degree programs between 2021 and 2025, affecting over 30% of the nation's offerings, while introducing 10,200 new tech-focused programs. The cuts target arts, humanities, foreign languages, and management fields deemed obsolete, as the country races to align higher education with its goal of becoming a global leader in AI and other high-tech industries.

Advertisement China’s universities cut 12,000 ‘obsolete’ degrees amid race to embrace AI era The sweeping overhaul has affected over 30 per cent of China’s degree programmes, with arts and languages ditched in favour of tech-focused fields 3-MIN READ3-MIN Carol Yang /author/carol-yang in Beijing China’s universities are undertaking a massive reshuffling of their academic offerings as part of a drive to better align higher education with the nation’s development goals – culling thousands of so-called obsolete degrees in favour of new, tech-focused programmes. The sweeping campaign comes as China races to become a global leader in a slew of hi-tech “future industries” https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3317889/what-are-chinas-future-industries-and-why-they-matter-global-tech-race?module=inline&pgtype=article and solve a severe graduate jobs crisis https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3312261/china-already-had-graduate-jobs-crisis-trade-war-making-it-worse?module=inline&pgtype=article , which has left millions of young people struggling to find work.Between 2021 and 2025, China’s higher education institutions revoked or suspended 12,200 undergraduate degree programmes while introducing 10,200 new ones, meaning that more than 30 per cent of the nation’s university programmes underwent adjustments, according to Ministry of Education data cited by Xinhua. Advertisement The cuts have been heavily concentrated in arts, humanities, foreign languages and management – fields that are increasingly deemed outdated or oversaturated in China, where more than 16 per cent of young people are unemployed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3350813/chinas-youth-unemployment-crunch-deepens-record-graduation-season-looms?module=inline&pgtype=article and the job market is being rapidly transformed by artificial intelligence https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354669/wanted-ai-professionals-lean-chinas-surging-demand-future-tech?module=inline&pgtype=article .Many of the new programmes, meanwhile, are closely aligned with Beijing’s economic development goals. For instance, nine universities have added new majors in embodied intelligence https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3356629/china-fast-tracks-humanoid-robots-and-embodied-ai-industry-under-nationwide-programme?module=top story&pgtype=section?module=inline&pgtype=article , which dovetails with a national drive to speed up the integration of next-generation AI into the real economy.Advertisement Universities have faced pressure to adapt to rapid changes in the Chinese economy over recent years, as graduate numbers have soared to record levels https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3333652/china-braces-record-127-million-graduates-entering-tight-job-market-2026?module=inline&pgtype=article but many have found their degrees offer little help https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3352006/china-sparks-backlash-plan-send-jobless-graduates-vocational-school?module=inline&pgtype=article when it comes to finding work.Advertisement Select Voice Select Speed 1.00x