Recently, the Ministry of Education released the record and approval results of undergraduate majors in ordinary colleges and universities in 2023, and released the catalog of undergraduate majors in ordinary colleges and universities in 2024. The addition, cancellation and adjustment of this major involved 3389 major distribution points in all colleges and universities across the country, with the largest number over the years.

It is worth noting that 24 new majors are added to the undergraduate specialty catalog of ordinary colleges and universities, including electronic information materials, soft matter science and engineering, high-power semiconductor science and engineering, biological breeding technology, ecological remediation, health science and technology, etc. The new disciplines not only reflect the needs of the times, help cultivate talents in emerging fields, but also highlight the importance of the country on the development of diversified disciplines.

Under the current situation, what direction should disciplines and majors explore and practice, and how to further open up a new track in the field of higher education is also an important principle of major optimization and adjustment. This time, the Ministry of Education further promoted the adjustment, optimization and reform of specialty settings, guided and supported colleges and universities to open new majors urgently needed by national strategies and regional development, and optimized the layout of disciplines aiming at the world's scientific frontier and key technology fields. At the same time, we will promote the transformation and upgrading of disciplines and specialties by setting up cross disciplines or promoting the cross integration of existing disciplines and specialties. In other words, what kind of talents is in short supply in the country, and the specialty setting of colleges and universities should be optimized and adjusted according to these needs.

Therefore, we should combine the characteristics of colleges and universities and the needs of the industry to create a distinctive discipline and specialty system, provide more sub tracks for students to display their talents, and avoid homogeneous competition. For those majors that do not meet the needs of society, they should be carefully added and timely adjusted. This is a key measure to solve the contradiction between talent supply and demand structure, and it is also a truly responsible attitude towards students.

It is understood that in March 2023, the Plan for Adjustment, Optimization and Reform of Disciplines and Specialties in General Higher Education issued by the Ministry of Education and other five departments proposed to optimize and adjust the distribution of about 20% of disciplines and specialties in colleges and universities by 2025, establish a new batch of disciplines and specialties that adapt to new technologies, new industries, new formats and new models, and eliminate disciplines and specialties that do not adapt to economic and social development. This round of major adjustment and optimization is an annual routine work of undergraduate major setting in colleges and universities. Since the implementation of the program for one year, the Ministry of Education has continued to strengthen the adjustment of professional settings, focusing on the implementation of "one province, one case" and "one school, one policy". At present, 23 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and 94 universities affiliated to the central government have formulated implementation plans.

"For whom, what and how to train people" has always been the fundamental issue of education. Colleges and universities are important birthplaces of new knowledge and new technology, and bear the main functions of scientific research. In the context of a new round of scientific and technological revolution, on the one hand, talent training in colleges and universities should change from passive adaptation to active and deep integration into the forefront of social and technological development, understand the real needs of talents in the new era, and create a new highland for training compound and innovative talents. On the other hand, we should focus on national needs, break discipline barriers, comprehensively deepen the construction of new engineering, new medical and new liberal arts in the future, transform and optimize traditional disciplines, lay out and cultivate new disciplines, and solve more "choke points" in the integration of industry, education and research.

Disciplines and specialties are an important carrier of talent cultivation and knowledge innovation, as well as the core pillar of the higher education system, and have far-reaching significance in promoting national progress and social development. In a word, it is a basic requirement to optimize and adjust the discipline setting in combination with the social needs and the actual industrial development in different regions. Disciplines and specialties can adapt to the rapidly changing social and economic environment, which requires active cooperation from all parties to form a system of independent cultivation of high-level talents and take the road of independent cultivation of innovative talents, so as to promote national development and social progress, and realize a powerful education country.

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