BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The enrollment of master's degree students in China is likely to increase by 189,000 this year, said Vice Education Minister Weng Tiehui Friday.
"Meanwhile, the country's bachelor's degree programs will strive to admit an additional 322,000 junior college students in 2020 compared with the figure last year," Weng told reporters at a press conference.
The expansion has taken into account the needs of economic and social development, financial support capabilities and conditions of higher education institutions in China, she noted.
China has 12,000 master's degree awarding centers, with more than 2,000 of the centers established in recent years, according to Weng.
"The expansion of enrollment will be geared toward sectors that serve the national strategies and those that are urgently needed for social development and people's livelihood," Weng said.
The expanded enrollment for master's degree programs will tilt toward majors including clinical medicine, public health, integrated circuits and artificial intelligence, while the increased admission of junior college students will target vocational and application-oriented education, including preventive medicine, emergency management, old-age service management and e-commerce.
China expects to see a total of 8.74 million college graduates this year and the novel coronavirus epidemic has increased the employment pressure on new graduates, Weng said, noting that expanding the channels for them to pursue further education is among the measures to cope with such pressure.
