Humanities studies take back seat as AI surges ahead

Fudan University's decision to slash its humanities enrollments by up to half and expand its technology-focused programs has sparked a fierce academic debate about the value of humanities subjects in the era of booming artificial intelligence.

The strategic pivot by the Shanghai-based university mirrors moves by Peking and Tsinghua universities to boost undergraduate intakes in AI and related fields. This is despite Fudan being celebrated as a traditional stronghold of the humanities.

At this year's annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, Fudan University President Jin Li, who is also an NPC deputy, revealed plans to restructure the engineering departments into six innovation colleges specializing in integrated circuits, intelligent robotics and advanced manufacturing.

Although new humanities programs will emerge, their overall share of admissions will be reduced from 30 to 40 percent to 20 percent, he said.

Public reaction to the announcement has been divided.

Supporters have applauded the tech-oriented shift, arguing that AI dominance leaves mediocre humanities graduates uncompetitive in the jobs market. Others mourn the potential erosion of Fudan's humanities legacy.

The debate encapsulates China's developmental crossroads: balancing immediate tech demands with preserving the humanities "soul" of its elite education tradition.

Qiu Xin, Party Secretary of Fudan University, said at an earlier work conference that the university's humanities programs remain 'cornerstone' advantages, and their foundations won't be compromised. The reforms aim to elevate educational quality while meeting national priorities, he said.

Focusing on demand

The trend extends beyond Fudan, with elite higher education institutions like Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University recently announcing plans to expand student enrollments this year, heavily favoring strategic science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields including AI, robotics, and digital economy programs.

Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a recent news conference there are plans to increase the total enrollments at elite universities by 20,000 this year.

Tsinghua was the first university to announce its enrollment expansion, which will see it increase its undergraduate enrollments by 150 this year. The university is actively pushing to cultivate AI talent, and expansion is a major step toward realizing the goal, the university said.

Peking University announced that it will also enroll 150 more undergraduate students this year, with a focus on information technology, engineering, and medicine.

In the past five years, the two universities have enrolled around 3,500 undergraduate students annually, making the 150 jump a notable increase.

The moves follow the country's overall academic restructuring initiative. A plan issued by the Ministry of Education and four other departments in 2023 said the country will optimize 20 percent of its university majors by 2025, with one of the aims to meet industry needs.

The recent Government Work Report stressed the need to improve the structure of disciplines at elite universities. It also emphasized strengthening China's innovation ecosystem and efficiency through science and education.

Experts said compared with previous expansions of university enrollments, the latest round is more targeted and reflects China's intensifying tech rivalry with the US, particularly in semiconductors and AI, where domestic players like AI startup DeepSeek are driving innovation.

Wang Feng, director of the Institute of Education Mechanism and Institutional Reform at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences, said the latest enrollment expansion plan is more structured and focused on basic disciplines, cross-disciplines, and emerging sectors.

Ding Gang, a senior researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, said the 140-member research and development team at DeepSeek had an average age of 28 and almost all of them attended domestic universities. This reality upended a long-held belief in the tech sector that scientists should go to the United States for higher education.

More than 80 percent of the R&D team graduated from Tsinghua and Peking universities and less than five percent are from overseas universities, with core members still pursuing doctoral studies, he said, adding that the young team is indicative of the restructuring of the global innovation map.

The innovation and breakthroughs achieved by the team are testimony to the changes made by domestic universities to move away from rote learning to education that emphasizes critical thinking and cross-disciplinary experimentation, he said in a WeChat post.

The success of DeepSeek is not by accident, but it is inevitable thanks to China's strategic investment, he said. In the past 20 years, the development of research funding at Chinese universities has grown15 percent annually, Ding said.

In quantum computing and AI, the paper citation rate of Chinese scholars is already in top spot globally, he added.

Global trend

Humanities subjects are facing similar academic decline around the world.

OECD data shows enrollment in the humanities has witnessed a significant decrease in 80 percent of its member nations over the past decade.

At the US Ivy League college Harvard, its arts/humanities cohort shrank from 15.5 percent to 12.5 percent over the past decade while Britain's University of Kent announced last March that it would phase out six programs, including philosophy and art history.

On the career front, China's humanities graduates are confronting stark realities.

STEM graduates command significantly higher starting salaries, according to a report by Beijing-based education consultancy MyCOS. For 2022 college graduates, software engineers could earn a 7,056 yuan ($976) monthly salary compared with 5,374 yuan for visual design, the report said. Among China's 10 highest-earning degrees in 2022 there were no humanities majors.

Experts predict as China upgrades its manufacturing sector toward smart production, demand will surge further for talent in the fields of semiconductors, new energy, and biomedicine.

Meanwhile, AI advances through ChatGPT and DeepSeek threaten to automate entry-level humanities work involving language processing and data synthesis, they said.

Zhou Yisu, an associate professor of the faculty of education at the University of Macau, said he supports less well-known universities cutting liberal arts enrollments.

In past university enrollment expansions, less reputable universities had admitted many humanities students, but one must seriously reflect on what value they had created for the students and society as a whole, he told the Paper.cn.

The issue is a global one and is not unique to China, he added.

Advocates for liberal arts

Other academics, however, warned against sidelining the role of the humanities needed to cultivate critical thinking and cultural literacy.

Song Baoliang, vice president of Wuhan University, told China News Service that the development of AI has impacted almost all disciplines. However, he believes the humanities will live on, as they are significant in understanding language and personal spiritual pursuits.

"I often tell my students that interest is the most important thing. No matter which major they choose, AI cannot replace a human's role," he said. "What we can do is develop ourselves, learn more, embrace AI and new technologies, and integrate AI into different majors for upgrades."

Feng Yuanzheng, head of the Beijing People's Art Theater, said he used DeepSeek to write a film script, which he considered of reasonable quality.

"However, the script lacked warmth, human warmth, and it is not what I want," he said. "I think technology is limitless, yet it is limited in how people use it, not the other way around."

Zhou, from the University of Macau, said top universities still need to maintain a certain number of humanities majors.

Elite humanities talent is irreplaceable in the age of AI. Many technology companies hire humanities graduates for product design and user research, he said, adding that Deep-Seek had also hired liberal arts majors.

With the emergence of AI, job requirements may become more demanding, yet the demand for talented humanities graduates remains. Top-notch humanities talents are characterized by their wide-ranging knowledge, erudition, self-motivation, strong communication and coordination skills, as well as a high sense of responsibility, Zhou said.

It is difficult to accurately predict what majors will be in demand and develop in the future. The emphasis has moved from big data to the current focus on AI, both hot majors, which is a reflection of the continuous evolution in higher education demand, he said.

"There are indeed concerns about overheating in the current construction of AI programs, a point with which I strongly agree. The key lies not in chasing trends but in consolidating the quality of education," Zhou said.

Funding and resources are not the core issues for the development of higher education in China, he said.

"The central question is: 'What should the curriculum framework be? How can we do better?' This goes beyond the simple dichotomy of liberal arts and sciences; the core issue is whether there can be high-quality higher education."