Strengthening interdisciplinary integration and aligning talent cultivation with industry needs

These new university majors are enrolling students this year

In the 2024 "Catalog of Undergraduate Majors in Regular Higher Education Institutions" released by the Ministry of Education, 24 new majors—including Electronic Information Materials, Soft Matter Science and Engineering, High-Power Semiconductor Science and Engineering, Biological Breeding Technology, Ecological Restoration Science, and Health Science and Technology—have been officially incorporated into the undergraduate major catalog, bringing the total number of cataloged majors to 816. This year, these newly added majors will be piloted for enrollment at 54 higher education institutions. This round of major establishment and adjustment has four major characteristics: serving national strategies, targeting regional needs, strengthening interdisciplinary integration, and highlighting employment orientation. According to the results of the filing and approval of undergraduate majors at Beijing municipal regular higher education institutions, 16 universities have added 28 filed undergraduate majors. To help candidates understand the talent cultivation objectives, curriculum design, employment directions, and other relevant information of these majors, this publication conducted interviews with some of the universities.

　　Providing professional talent support for the development of the digital economy

By the end of 2022, China's digital economy had reached 50.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 41.5% of GDP. At present, new technologies such as the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence are advancing rapidly; new business forms, new models, and new scenarios are emerging one after another, creating an urgent need to accelerate the cultivation of digital talent.

To this end, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and eight other departments recently issued the "Action Plan for Accelerating Digital Talent Cultivation to Support Digital Economy Development (2024-2026)," closely aligned with the development needs of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization. Over the next three years or so, they will solidly carry out special initiatives for cultivating, attracting, retaining, and utilizing digital talent, increase the effective supply of digital talent, and create a clustering effect for digital talent.

To provide strong talent support for making China's digital economy larger, stronger, and better, Capital University of Economics and Business has this year added three majors: Digital Economy, Financial Technology, and Supply Chain Management. Among them, Digital Economy belongs to the economics category, Financial Technology belongs to the finance category, and Supply Chain Management belongs to the logistics management and engineering category. The School of Economics, the School of Finance, and the College of Business Administration are respectively responsible for talent cultivation in these majors.

This publication has learned that the study content of the above three majors, in addition to foundational knowledge in traditional economics, finance, logistics management and engineering, is also integrated and interdisciplinary with fields such as the Internet, blockchain, big data, and artificial intelligence. The goal is to cultivate talent suited to the digital-intelligent era and meeting the needs of modern economic system construction and digital-era development.

It is also understood that for candidates planning to apply to these majors, Meng Yifang, director of the university's Admissions Office, said that because the newly added majors have no previous years' admission data for reference, candidates can refer to the previous years' cutoff scores of the major group in which the new major is located and the previous years' admission scores and rankings of similar majors.

　　Helping expand and upgrade China's new energy industry

Energy is the lifeline of modern economic and industrial development, and promoting high-quality development of new energy is the inevitable path to achieving high-quality economic and social development. As institutions of higher education are the concentrated convergence point of science and technology as primary productive forces, talent as primary resources, and innovation as primary driving force, the newly added undergraduate major "New Energy Materials and Devices" at Beijing University of Technology this year was established by the university based on the need to adapt to the development of national strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, and high-end equipment manufacturing, and in adherence to the concept of coordinated development between key materials and technologies for new energy devices and the environment.

Wei Zhonghua, deputy director of the Academic Affairs Office of Beijing University of Technology, told this publication that the New Energy Materials and Devices major is one that studies and develops key materials for new energy conversion and utilization as well as the design and manufacturing of their devices. It is one of the youngest majors in the materials category under the engineering discipline.

Wei Zhonghua further explained that the essence of the New Energy Materials and Devices major lies in the integration of new energy materials and devices. Unlike traditional materials (such as alloy materials), new energy materials are not simple materials but possess structural and functional characteristics. For example, the core material of solar panels is not simply silicon but must form a certain structure (such as a PN junction) and be capable of achieving photoelectric conversion. Therefore, new energy materials and devices research involves not only materials or components but the combination of both. In other words, the focus of this major is how to bridge the gap between new energy materials and devices. "The newly added major belongs to the broad materials category and is also a highly interdisciplinary major, with certain intersections with majors such as New Energy Science and Engineering, Nanomaterials and Technology, Applied Chemistry, and Applied Physics."

"The New Energy Materials and Devices major is enrolled under the broad materials category, and candidates applying this year can refer to the enrollment requirements of the materials category in previous years. In addition, the major will set up courses around material preparation, processing, characterization, new function development, and energy device design and integration, while emphasizing the integration of informatization and green development into the training system. Therefore, candidates should focus on building a solid foundation in mathematics, physics, and chemistry during their secondary school years." For candidates preparing to apply to this major, Guo Zaixun, deputy director of the Admissions Office of Beijing University of Technology, reminded that for provinces with college entrance examination reform, the required subjects for the Materials category (experimental class) are "Physics + Chemistry"; for non-reform provinces, students are recruited from the science track.

　　Focusing on industrial upgrading and development to strengthen the talent cultivation chain

Majors are the basic units of talent cultivation and the "four beams and eight pillars" for building high-level undergraduate education and cultivating first-class talent. In recent years, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology has adhered to its positioning as a high-level applied university, focused on national and capital strategic needs, accelerated the structural adjustment of disciplines and majors, actively established emerging majors urgently needed for national strategies and capital development, and proactively promoted the transformation and upgrading of disciplines and majors. Since 2017, the university has successively added 14 undergraduate majors, actively aligning with the development needs of Beijing's high-precision and advanced industries and some emerging industries, continuously improving its capacity to serve the "four centers," and advancing high-quality development in the course of serving the capital's development.

This year, after sufficient preliminary research, in order to meet the needs of the capital's economic and social development, and after making comprehensive preparations in training programs and teaching support, the university organized applications and ultimately successfully obtained approval for three new majors: Intelligent Manufacturing Engineering, Work Safety Supervision, and Auditing.

This publication noted that the three new majors added by the university this year all intersect with related disciplines. When asked about the reason, Zhang Shibo, director of the university's Admissions Office, said that designing the new majors in this way can, on the one hand, further promote the integrated development of the university's traditional advantageous disciplines and majors with emerging disciplines and majors, and can also enhance the university's level of major construction and improve its capacity and level of social service. In addition, this is also an inherent and inevitable requirement of the university's commitment to focusing on industrial upgrading and development and strengthening the talent cultivation chain.

When discussing the talent cultivation objectives of the majors, Zhang Shibo explained that the university's Intelligent Manufacturing major emphasizes the combination of software and hardware, and through the practical teaching system of "uninterrupted four-year enterprise learning education," focuses on cultivating students' practical engineering ability in intelligent manufacturing, engineering design ability, and awareness of scientific and technological innovation. The Work Safety Supervision major, in adherence to the university's educational mission of "focusing on advantageous research fields in urban safety operations and serving the major needs of high-quality development of the capital and the industry," deeply integrates safety engineering and emergency management with disciplines and majors such as law and management science. With the precise orientation of cultivating work safety supervision talent, it focuses on the work safety process, highlights the cultivation of safety supervision and law enforcement capabilities, enhances professional knowledge and practical application abilities in risk control and hidden danger investigation, disaster governance and emergency management, and safety supervision and law enforcement, and cultivates high-quality applied talent capable of undertaking work safety supervision. The Auditing major highlights the characteristics of green auditing; on the basis of learning accounting and auditing knowledge and skills, it expands knowledge and skills in related disciplines such as resources, environment, and environmental protection, and cultivates students' ability to conduct related auditing business under the dual carbon strategic goals.

　　New majors serve "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" and add value to a better life

According to statistics, among the 28 newly filed undergraduate majors at 16 municipal universities, in addition to majors in engineering, management, and education ranking in the top three in terms of number added, the new agricultural science is also a highlight of the newly filed majors this time. Beijing University of Agriculture has newly established two majors this year: Biological Breeding Technology and Food Nutrition and Health.

In recent years, relying on the capital's advantages, seed industry research resources, and talent resources, Beijing has basically formed four major seed industry systems: crops, livestock and poultry, aquatic products, and forestry and fruit. Biological breeding technology leads the country, and the number of authorized breeding invention patents, the number of authorized new plant varieties, and the number of varieties approved at the national level all rank first in the country.

In order to better serve the development of the capital's "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers," and to cultivate composite applied outstanding agricultural and forestry talent with deep humanistic grounding and a foundation in natural sciences, solid professional knowledge, practical ability, and an international perspective, who serve modern seed industry and related fields with high overall quality, a reasonable knowledge structure, strong practical ability, and an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, the Biological Breeding Technology major at Beijing University of Agriculture intersects with multiple existing majors at the university, such as Agronomy, Horticulture, Bioengineering, and Data Science and Big Data Technology.

Because the Biological Breeding Technology major involves a large amount of foundational knowledge in biology, genetics, breeding science, statistics, and big data processing, and requires relatively strong logical thinking ability and experimental operation ability, Ma Lanqing, director of the university's Academic Affairs Office and director of the Undergraduate Admissions Office, suggests that when choosing this major, candidates should ensure they have a strong interest in these fields and possess the corresponding learning ability.

As for the Food Nutrition and Health major, Ma Lanqing explained that this major allows students to more comprehensively master knowledge of the entire industrial chain of plant-based and animal-based food raw materials, from planting and breeding to processing. The major intersects with multiple disciplines such as Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Bioengineering, and Food Science and Engineering. "Because this major is enrolling students for the first time this year and there is no historical data for reference, candidates and parents can refer to the historical admission score lines of similar majors, such as Food Science and Engineering and Food Quality and Safety. In addition, candidates and parents should also note that the Food Nutrition and Health major belongs to the food science and engineering category and is an engineering major, whereas Food Hygiene and Nutrition belongs to the public health and preventive medicine category and is a medical major."