New Delhi: China is doing away with degree programmes that it believes are no longer relevant in the AI age. Fields such as arts, management, and foreign languages have taken a hit while new tech-focussed degrees have been introduced, reported South China Morning Post.
This comes as artificial intelligence reshapes higher education and workplaces globally, with workers constantly up-skilling due to the fear of being replaced by more AI-savvy employees.
According to China’s education ministry data, cited by Xinhua, higher education institutions in the country scrapped 12,200 undergraduate degrees between 2021 and 2025, after finding them to be obsolete. These were replaced by 10,200 new courses that are more aligned with the demands of the job market. This move has affected over 30 per cent of the total degree programmes offered in China.
Most of the suspended degrees are from the fields of humanities, arts, management, and foreign languages, which are now believed to have become outdated. The SCMP report said that the new programmes have been introduced keeping in mind China’s economic development goals, with nine of them focussed on integrating next-gen AI into the real economy.
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Unemployment fears
Universities have been prompted to end some courses due to a rise in the number of graduates and low employment opportunities. According to National Bureau of Statistics data released in April this year, the unemployment rate among China’s youth, aged 16 to 24 excluding students, rose from 16.1 per cent in February to 16.9 per cent in March.
Some students say that the rapid advancement in AI has rendered their degrees useless. The University of Shanghai for Science and Technology ended its product design programme this year.
“The rapid development of AI has hit product design hard. Many core tasks, such as modelling and rendering, can now be handled by AI,” a graduate told SCMP.
The shift away from degree programmes was also evident during the gaokao exam, China’s national university entrance exam, this year. The number of students appearing for the exam went down by 4,50,000 to 12.9 million in 2026. This was the second consecutive drop after registrations declined by 70,000 from 2024, as per data released by the Ministry of Education.
Analysts say the unemployment rate is likely to worsen in China with 12.7 million university graduates ready to enter the job market this year, Reuters reported.
More students are opting for vocational courses now, which can directly provide full-time work. In May, hundreds had turned up to register for just 30 available spots at a vocational school in Beijing.