On the Choice of University Major

Zhu+Jinyao

Industry development and social demand are the bases for employment of universities students， but many universities are too interests first in practical teaching， they operate the major setting as “make a fortune”. In the principle， lots of universities rush to setting their majors， students and their parents blindly follow suit. Due to lag in qualified teachers and training schemes， the students of such majors generally will not have strong professional skills， therefore， many undergraduates will leave their school with nothing both materially and inner cultivation， and when the market is cooling， it will be hard for them to find a job.

It is a mission for a university to train students with independent mind and their own thoughts or talents， but， not all universities will insist on this concept and way in cultivating and training students. For example， universities in 211 plan mainly train students for a high-end purpose， while it is more suitable for higher vocational college and general universities to train students for economic purpose. In fact， in addition to the inheritance of civilization， many colleges and universities will undertake a greater mission in training students solid employment ability and professional quality.

Employment of universities students is an eternal topic to the media. The media often unthinkingly do propaganda obviously misleading the students and their parents and make them doubly confused. In fact， many so-called “good majors” and “bad majors” during college application filling every year are the product of the speculation of media. It cause fundamental misalignment of supply and demand information in the employment market and make undergraduate employment increasingly difficult.

How to solve the problem？ We should face the contradictions and problems during the period of changing times.

Firstly， give universities more autonomy to run will also help to break the strange phenomenon. This requires all universities to flexibly set their undergraduate profession and regularly make assessment based on academic development and talent training needs. For example， all professions， except new ones， can be ranked according to three indicators including source of students， employment rate and discipline level and the enrollment quota for those professions with unacceptable assessment results can be reduced or even cancelled.

Secondly， school-enterprise cooperation can improve the teaching quality and service capabilities of universities， give play to professional advantages of characteristic discipline and show their characteristics， and cultivation of professional spirit of the undergraduates is also a concrete reflection of implementing cooperative education. By training model innovation， school-enterprise cooperation is more helpful to construct universities into distinctive high-level application-oriented university， train more high-quality， applied， versatile and innovative talents as well as find and nurture the talent in shortage.

Thirdly， more attentions shall be also paid to professional skills， social adaption ability and other aspects of the undergraduates. When choosing a profession， students and their parents should not blindly stare at “popular” or “unpopular” ones， after all， this is not representative of future four years later. For college students， the interest is the most important. Our era is the era of innovation， the demand of innovation and entrepreneurial ability is greatly elevated in future， only when the students are willing to learn， can they better grasp scientific knowledge and technology and can they have a creative idea.

Finally， the comprehensive ability of talents is also very important in future. Apart from a few particularly strong professional posts， more and more enterprises have no high requirements for undergraduate， even have no professional restrictions. In fact， transcripts are generally concerned about by the employers， because this is the most direct proof of the learning ability of universities students， and social practice ability， teamwork ability and interpersonal skill are also valued by the employers.