Nanfang Daily, Nanfang Plus:

We've noticed that some universities have recently adjusted their undergraduate majors. Could you explain the key factors behind these adjustments? In promoting the high-quality development of higher education, how can we make scientific and rational adjustments to optimize undergraduate majors? Thank you.

Huai Jinpeng：

The journalist has raised an astute point. The relationship between disciplines and majors planning and socioeconomic development is a key element specifically addressed in the comprehensive education reform plans outlined at the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. I would like to invite Mr. Wu to respond to this question.

Wu Yan:

Let me address this question. We have two fundamental principles regarding undergraduate education: "Talent cultivation is foundational, and undergraduate education is the root," and "without a solid undergraduate foundation, everything else falters." These principles underscore the irreplaceable foundational role of undergraduate education in higher education. The significance of undergraduate education is threefold. Looking upward, it connects directly to graduate education, providing excellent "raw material" for advanced studies. Looking downward, it links directly to basic education, especially high school education, where its standards and direction shape basic education reform. Looking outward, undergraduates make up 80% of all higher education students (including undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels), and undergraduate educational quality directly determines this primary group's quality, level and contributions. As for how to effectively manage undergraduate education, we adhere to two key principles: "The major is the basic unit of talent cultivation," and "the curriculum is the core element of talent cultivation." In a certain sense, all educational components — from teaching and learning to courses, textbooks, internships, experiments and practical training — must be integrated into undergraduate majors. The CPC Central Committee, the State Council and society at large place great emphasis on undergraduate education. In building a strong educational nation, the quality of undergraduate majors determines the overall caliber of higher education.

Currently, there are 1,308 institutions offering undergraduate programs nationwide, with the number of placements of undergraduate majors reaching 62,000 across 12 disciplines, 93 categories of majors and 816 specific majors. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, we have accelerated the adjustment and optimization of the majors structure. Let me share two data points: Over the past 12 years, we have added 21,000 new placements of undergraduate majors and discontinued or suspended 12,000 that no longer align with socioeconomic development needs. We have undertaken a significant and extensive restructuring of our disciplines and majors. This year alone, we established 1,673 new placements of majors urgently needed for driving national strategies while discontinuing 1,670 that were not aligned with socioeconomic development. The scale of these adjustments is unprecedented.

Next, in line with the spirit of the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee and the recently concluded National Education Conference, we will work on enhancing the mechanism for aligning talent cultivation with socioeconomic development needs. We will dynamically adjust the requirements for disciplines and majors, focusing our efforts on three areas of alignment:

First, we must align undergraduate majors development with urgent national strategic needs. This involves deepening the development of education in new engineering, new medicine, new agriculture and new liberal arts. Additionally, we should focus on cutting-edge technologies and key national strategic areas, establishing emerging majors and expanding placements in urgently needed and scarce majors. It is particularly important to improve how well university majors and talent cultivation respond to the demands of quality-driven development, taking a more targeted approach to cultivating talent with expertise of strategic importance and addressing critical talent shortages.

Second, we must improve the alignment of majors development in universities, especially local institutions, with regional development. At the beginning of this year, we conducted assessments of how well university majors matched regional development in provinces and cities, including Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Henan, Chongqing and Shaanxi. Next year, we will further expand this initiative. Through these efforts, we actively encourage each region to align majors development with local development needs, particularly in industries, to create clusters of majors with unique strengths. This will help establish a mechanism for coordinating higher education and industry clusters to serve regional development better.

Third, we aim to better align undergraduate majors with students' holistic development. We will leverage AI to enrich the content of majors, purposefully optimize talent cultivation plans and refine knowledge and competency frameworks for each major. These efforts will comprehensively improve education and teaching quality. We will encourage universities to correctly balance knowledge acquisition with overall development (the integration of intellectual, moral, physical, aesthetic and labor education) and to strengthen the cultivation of core competencies. The goal is to nurture a new generation of individuals who possess both moral and intellectual integrity, maintain physical and mental health, demonstrate vigor and actively pursue their dreams.

That's all for my response. Thank you!