China丨Freshmen-to-be weigh up their major options

As high school graduates begin to consider which universities and majors they should choose, experts have cautioned that they shouldn't simply go after the current trendy courses.

当高中毕业生开始考虑他们应该选择哪些大学和专业时，专家提醒他们不应仅仅追求当前的热门专业。

With students who took the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, already learning their scores, parents and students are racking their brains to plan their futures.

随着参加全国高考的学生已经获知他们的分数，家长和学生正在费尽心思地规划他们的未来。

Zhang, founder ofaneducation company, advised students to choose majors with high barriers to entry. Before that, he triggered a heated debate on microblogging platform Sina Weibo about whether journalism is a good major or not after he said he would beat his child if the child decided to study journalism at college.

峰学蔚来教育科技有限公司的创始人张雪峰建议学生选择门槛较高的专业。此前，他在微博上发表了一段关于新闻学的言论“如果孩子非要报新闻学，我一定会把他打晕”，引发了关于该专业是否值得选择的激烈讨论。

Some netizens have even labeled bioengineering, chemical engineering, environment and materials majors as being poor because they said it is difficult for graduates with bachelor's degrees in these fields to find a good job.

一些网民甚至将生物工程、化学工程、环境和材料专业戏称为“贫穷专业”，因为他们认为这些专业的本科毕业生很难找到好的工作。

Some also suggested students avoid liberal arts because such graduates are easily replaced in the job market.

一些人还建议学生避免选择文科专业，因为这些毕业生容易在就业市场上被其他人替代。

According to the Ministry of Education, the country will adjust around 20 percent of its university majors by 2025, setting up new majors suitable for new technologies and industries, and weeding out outdated majors.

根据教育部的数据，预计到2025年，中国将优化调整高校20%左右学科专业布点，新设一批适应新技术、新产业、新业态、新模式的学科专业，淘汰不适应经济社会发展的学科专业。

Jin Baijiang, director of the student admission office of Nankai University in Tianjin, said new majors are being created to meet new demand, and it can't easily be said if they will be good or not.

天津南开大学招生办主任金柏江表示，为了满足新的需求，他们正在创建新的专业，但不能轻率地断言这些专业的质量如何。

Traditional majors usually have sophisticated student cultivation plans and their graduates have stood the test of the job market, especially majors such as math, physics and chemistry, he told Guangming Daily.

他告诉光明日报记者，传统专业往往具有成熟的教学培养体系，培养出的人才经过用人单位检验，特别是基础学科专业如数学、物理、化学等等。

Whether the new majors can become popular hinges on their ability to meet the needs of industry and the overall strength of universities that have offered the majors, he said.

他表示：“新专业能否成为热门专业，既取决于人才培养的适应度、行业对专业人才的需求度，也取决于学校专业的办学实力。”

However, industries fluctuate, so some new majors might also become unwanted in the future, he added.

他补充道：“但是，专业、行业的发展是有周期的，一味追新设立的专业也可能在行业周期中变成下行态势。”

He Zhiwei, a director of the undergraduate school of China Agricultural University, said: "Unpopular majors might not stay unpopular forever. For example, as the country puts more focus on food security, agricultural majors are becoming more popular and the threshold scores for the university's agricultural majors have increased for three consecutive years."

中国农业大学本科生院培养处处长何志巍表示：“一些所谓的冷门专业也不一定就会愈加冷门，比如近年来随着国家对粮食安全日益重视，农学类专业正在逐步升温。以中国农业大学农学类专业为例，录取分数近三年逐年提升。”

Jin added that whether a major is hot or not has much to do with the salary, working environment and societal demand for graduates, yet it overlooks the major's prospects and the university's strength. More importantly, students' interests and preferences are not considered, he said.

金柏江补充道，专业的“冷热”不能简单等同于专业的岗位收入、工作环境、社会需求等因素。不能忽略了行业未来发展前景，以及学校自身实力等因素，更不能忽视了学生自身的兴趣特点、价值取向。

"One can easily find that there is no popular or unpopular major in the long term, and there is no popular major that is suited for all students."

“把眼光放长远，就会看到没有永远的热门专业，也没有永远的冷门专业，更没有对每个人都适宜的热门专业。”

Freshman

英/ˈfreʃmən/ 美/ˈfreʃmən/

n.（中学或大学的）一年级学生

Major

英/ˈmeɪdʒə(r)/ 美/ˈmeɪdʒər/

n.主修科目，专业