In a first, more postgrads than undergrads are set to graduate in Beijing this year
- City’s universities have expanded graduate admissions and more students are seeking higher degrees due to difficulty finding work, expert says
- Across China, a record high of 11.6 million people are expected to graduate from university in 2023, according to education official
For the first time, more PhD and master’s students are set to graduate in Beijing this year than undergraduates, according to an education official.
Su Xiuli, deputy head of a careers guidance centre affiliated with the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, also said that around 285,000 students were expected to graduate from universities in the Chinese capital this year.
She made the remarks in an interview with state newspaper The Beijing News on Saturday.
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Su said that across the nation, the number of university graduates was expected to reach 11.6 million in 2023 – a record high.
“The employment situation for this year’s [graduates] is still very tough,” Su was quoted as saying.
But Xiong Bingqi, head of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said the situation in Beijing did not reflect the overall picture in Chinese universities.
“Beijing has many universities that have been expanding their graduate enrolments while controlling the number of undergraduates,” he said, adding that some already had more postgraduates than undergraduates.
Xiong said that nationwide there were still more undergraduates than master’s or PhD students expected to graduate this year, and that was unlikely to change in the future.
Chinese universities have expanded admissions for graduate students in recent years, a move education vice-minister Weng Tiehui said in 2020 was aimed at easing pressure on employment.
More than 4.74 million students took the national entrance exam for graduate school in 2022, up 3.7 per cent from the previous year. By comparison, some 1.77 million students took the exam in 2015.
Xiong said difficulty finding work was the main reason more people were pursuing postgraduate studies.
“It’s hard for undergraduates to find jobs and the expansion of enrolments may give them an opportunity [to get a higher degree and secure work],” he said. “But the question is whether the quality of postgraduate education can be assured by the universities, and also whether our society needs so many postgraduates.”
China’s economic recovery ‘mixed’ at start of 2023 as job pressure remains
About one in five young people are unemployed in China. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the jobless rate for 16- to 24-year-olds was 18.1 per cent in the January-February period, compared to 16.7 per cent in December.
Su told the Beijing newspaper that a recent survey had found 40 per cent of graduates were pessimistic about finding work this year. She said students found the employment situation “stressful”.
