Many of China’s top universities will increase their admissions quotas this year, as the country seeks to produce more skilled graduates to work in emerging fields like artificial intelligence.

The enrollment expansion is concentrated among a group of 147 elite schools known in China as “double first-class” universities, which account for the top 5% of the country’s nearly 2,900 tertiary institutions.

After admitting 16,000 more students in 2024, double first-class universities will expand their incoming freshman class by an additional 20,000 students this year, Zheng Shanjie, the director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, announced at a press conference last week.

The double first-class category has its roots in the 1990s, as China sought to establish “world-class” universities and disciplines. Designated institutions benefit from extra state funding and resources and have largely been excluded from the country’s rapid scale-up of university enrollment over the past two decades.

The elite Tsinghua University announced March 2 it would increase undergraduate enrollment by 150 spots this year. It also plans to establish a new undergraduate college focused on cultivating interdisciplinary talent for the AI industry and other emerging sectors.

Peking University announced it would also increase the size of its incoming class by 150 places in 2025. Several other high-profile institutions, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Renmin University of China, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, have made similar moves this month, increasing enrollment by between 100 and 500 spots.

Affected schools say they will give priority to frontier technologies and emerging disciplines such as AI, integrated circuits, biomedicine, as well as interdisciplinary studies. In 2023, China’s Ministry of Education laid out a plan for “optimizing” emerging disciplines by 2025, with a focus on sectors of strategic importance or vital need.

Although China massively increased university enrollment beginning in the late 1990s, earlier initiatives were centered on regional local universities and vocational colleges, says Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at China’s National Institute of Education Sciences.

“In China’s higher education system, vocational college enrollment accounts for 45% of students, while local universities account for 30%,” Chu told Sixth Tone on Monday. “The proportion of students enrolled in double first-class universities is relatively small.”

Many graduates of smaller, less prestigious schools have struggled to find work in recent years. But demand for top talents remains high, according to Chu. This is especially true in fields like tech and biomedicine, where China is attempting to foster globally competitive firms.

The enrollment expansion ultimately reflects policymakers’ desire to better align higher education with evolving industry and market demands. “The disciplines where enrollment is expanded will align with market demand, particularly the needs of employers,” Chu said.

(Header image: nPine/VCG)