WSJ - Much like the U.S., China is aiming to address a problematic demographic that has recently emerged: a generation of jobless graduates. China’s Ministry of Education announced this week plans to phase out majors producing unemployable graduates, according to state-run media Xinhua. The government will soon start evaluating college majors by their employment rates, downsizing or cutting those studies in which the employment rate for graduates falls below 60% for two consecutive years. The surge of collge grads, while an accomplishment for the country, has contributed to an overflow of workers whose skill-sets don’t match with the needs of the export-led, manufacturing-based economy. Many university professors in China are unhappy with the Ministry of Education’s move, as it will likely shrink the talent pool needed for various subjects, such as biology, that are critical to the country’s aim of becoming a leader in science and technology but do not currently have a strong market demand, a report in the state-run China Daily report said.
Now more certain than ever that China is hacking my e-mail account because I had a word for word e-mail chain a few weeks ago about this very subject, right as the Occupy Boston movement was heating up and college students were starting to complain that their Roman Art History majors weren't getting them employed. Fucking China, stealing nearly all of my million dollar ideas.
On a more serious note though, the US should probably consider something similar to this, maybe not cutting majors entirely, but how about incentives for students who choose majors that might actually lead to gainful employment, as opposed to British literature majors, Anthropology, "English majors" (I put that in quotes because there is no bigger cop-out...we've spoken English since Kindegarten, how about challenging yourself), etc...
