Popular majors result in low pay, high unemployment

(Ecns.cn)--The 2012 Chinese College Graduates Employment Report by MyCOS, a third-party research institute that specializes in education assessment, has informed some graduates that their choice of majors might have been a mistake.

The survey monitored the job seeking experiences and career development of 17,719 students who majored in various subjects, reports Want China Times, a Taiwan-based news website.

The report ranks majors into three categories for job prospects: red, green and yellow. Red denotes high unemployment and low pay, while green indicates promising careers and handsome salaries. Those in between are classified as yellow, and generally mean low job satisfaction.

Animation, law, biotechnology, bioscience and bioengineering; mathematics, physical education, computer science and technology; English, international economy and trade are all red subjects, says the report.

The green subjects, most of which are related to mining, energy and engineering have kept many liberal arts students away, a Web user said.

"Many college candidates have no idea about the subjects, so they better research the majors they are interested in. Do not make blind decisions," suggested Wang, a graduate in public finance from Peking University.

"I bitterly regret choosing public finance as my major," said Wang, who eventually went to South Korea to study the language.

Xi, who graduated from the China University of Geosciences, argued that beneath the surface glitter, industries related to green subjects are mostly tough places to work.

Being green does not necessarily mean being good, Xi added, so students should be rational about choosing subjects.

Experts say China's universities have been offering attractive subjects to achieve profits, regardless of job market demand. As a result, supply has exceeded demand, and many students are finding it hard to get jobs.

Statistics show that animation as a major could only be found at two universities in 1999. By 2008, roughly 1,230 colleges and universities were offering it.

Xu Yubin, a professor at the Henan Research Center for Teacher Education, said that schools have been in a mad rush to offer popular subjects, which has led to an oversupply of graduates.

A staff member at a university added that some schools are not even qualified to teach such classes, but they do it anyway.

Yang Jie, vice head of the School of Educational Science at Henan University, explained that most schools do not conduct research before offering new subjects. "Such a practice may cause a low teaching level from lecturers, and disappointing performance by students," he said.

Yang cited the U.S., saying that Chicago University suspended its School of Education even though it has good teachers and a large student pool. "The school made this decision based on the fact that market demand had come close to saturation."

Education experts suggest that a third-party evaluation institution be created. It should be the market, not the education authority, that decides what subjects are offered or suspended.