In early September, Zhejiang University of Technology (China) caused a stir when it announced the number of students enrolled in 2024. Accordingly, the university system is 5,342 students, graduate students are 5,382 students. For the first time, the number of graduate students and undergraduate students of the school is equal to 1-1.

This year, Tsinghua University also recruited 3,760 new undergraduates and 12,069 graduate students. Peking University welcomed 4,408 new undergraduates, 6,936 master's students and 3,867 doctoral students. Similarly, Fudan University recruited 4,337 undergraduates and 8,131 graduate students in 2024.

In addition, this situation also occurs in a number of other schools such as: East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai University of Finance & Economics and Shanghai University of Science and Technology... According to educational experts in China, "reverse" enrollment mainly occurs in schools under the 985 project (to build world-class universities) of the Government and Ministry of Education of this country.

It cannot be denied that the expansion of enrollment and training of masters and doctors has provided society with a large number of talents, contributing significantly to the development of the country. However, it has also been accompanied by a number of consequences such as: the value of degrees has decreased, the cost of studying is high and the most prominent is the situation of "high level, low employment".

Annual data from the Chinese Ministry of Education shows that the number of PhD graduates has increased by 14.3% in the past 10 years, but the number of teaching staff nationwide remains at 3%, according to Times Higher Education . Explaining the problem, Mr. Tran Tieu Dan - Deputy Director of the Graduate School of East China University of Science and Technology, said: "In terms of data, the scale of postgraduate enrollment has increased rapidly, but in terms of the structure of the majors, to meet the requirements of the scientific and technological revolution as well as the transformation of the industry, schools still lack high-quality human resources."

For example, in the field of Artificial Intelligence, he said, current statistics show that China lacks up to 5 million talents in this field. Not only is there a lack of scientists, but there is also a lack of experts with technical proficiency and management ability.

According to Mr. Dan, to solve the problem of surplus human resources of "high qualifications, low employment", schools should adjust their training structure, optimize their programs and focus on teaching majors that the country is lacking.

Sharing the same view, Professor Uong Gia Lam of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (China) affirmed that there cannot be a surplus of highly qualified human resources if schools continuously optimize their program structure to integrate learning, research and application of knowledge.

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Illustration photo: Beijing News

In fact, the postgraduate system in China is growing rapidly because many students have difficulty finding jobs so they choose to pursue degrees. According to statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Education in March, in 2023 alone, the postgraduate system nationwide will enroll 1,301,700 people, of which master's students account for 1,148,400 students and doctoral students account for 153,300 students.

As of now, China has 3,882,900 postgraduate students, of which 3,270,400 are masters and 612,500 are doctoral students. With a large gap between the ratio of doctorates and masters, according to China Science News, the number of PhDs in China is currently in serious shortage.

The reason is the imbalance in training. Specifically, in 2023, China will only recruit 31,400/153,300 professional doctorates (Professional Doctorate), accounting for 20.48%. Thus, expanding the number of professional doctorate students annually, according to education experts in this country, is necessary, especially in fields such as: Science, Engineering and Technology,...

Dozens of universities have 2025 enrollment plans . In 2025, many universities will change their enrollment methods. Some schools will increase their enrollment methods and quotas, but many schools will also shorten them to avoid being cumbersome and ineffective.