Chinese colleges extend postgrad programmes as job pressure builds
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Youth unemployment is a sensitive issue for Beijing, since discontent among young people could risk social stability.
PHOTO: AFP
BEIJING – A flurry of Chinese universities are extending the duration of their postgraduate programmes as the job market in the world’s second-largest economy remains sluggish.
Starting in 2025, Guangxi Normal University in China’s south will shift 17 master’s programmes from a two-year cycle to three years, according to an official statement last week, which said this was meant to further improve “the cultivation of postgraduates”.
The school has more than 100 such full-time programmes in 2024.
The Graduate School of Inner Mongolia Normal University is also extending the length of 12 degrees for 2025, “based on the needs of cultivating professional postgraduates”.
The same situation is playing out in Shenyang Ligong University and Xi’an International Studies University.
China’s universities typically offer two-year postgraduate programmes.
The news garnered some 96 million views on Chinese social media platform Weibo, with many internet users linking the move to efforts to reduce pressure on the lacklustre job market.
Youth unemployment is a sensitive issue for Beijing, since discontent among young people could risk social stability.
“This is probably to help with the jobless rate,” one Weibo user observed.
“Why don’t you extend the age at which companies like to hire people?” another commenter said in a popular response.
Chinese companies are infamous for discriminating against hiring people over the age of 35.
The jobless rate for those between 16 and 24 years old climbed to a record 21.3 per cent in June 2023, before the National Bureau of Statistics temporarily stopped releasing the data.
That rate – using a new methodology that excludes students – fell to its lowest level in June, though it is still more than double the overall unemployment rate.
The appeal of postgraduate programmes rose in recent years as Covid-19 and a real estate slump dampened growth, while a sweeping crackdown on the private sector has contributed to large layoffs in tech and education companies, traditionally among the biggest recruiters at universities.
As a result, more young people have opted to pursue graduate school degrees to beef up their qualifications and wait for better economic opportunities.
The percentage of university students heading to graduate schools rose four straight years to 20.3 per cent in 2023 from 17.4 per cent in 2019, according to a survey released in June by education consultancy Mycos. BLOOMBERG
