Are Colleges Producing Too Many English Majors?

At the International Higher Education Forum 2018 held in November, Wu Yan, Director of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, said majors that “do not live up to conscience” should be scrapped. He was referring to disciplines or majors that were producing more graduates than society needed or whose curriculums did not meet students’ actual needs.

Going by this yardstick, English is indisputably a major that does not “live up to conscience,” according to some critics. So far, of China’s 1,448 undergraduate universities, over 1,000 have English as a major, mostly focusing on English literature. These colleges and universities have more than 600,000 students studying English. Apart from foreign language universities, teachers’ training colleges and comprehensive universities, even specialized institutions like agricultural, petrol, marine and medical colleges have set up English departments. Every year, Chinese colleges and universities churn out nearly 200,000 graduates with English as their major.

But a recent survey conducted in Shanghai shows that less than 5-percent English graduates continue studying the language or literature in postgraduate schools. Most graduates find jobs related to finance, law, business management or other subjects that are not exclusive to people with an English education background.

Against this backdrop, some colleges and universities have already acted to scrap their English departments. Once pursued by so many students, today, the English major is losing clout in China’s higher education. People have different opinions on why this discipline is going out of favor as well as suggestions on what to do to improve the situation.

Calls for reform Cai Jigang (www.whb.cn):

Despite the warning signs that English majors are facing rising difficulties in finding jobs in a related field, some colleges and universities still rush to set up English departments. They enroll a large number of undergraduates and postgraduates, turning a blind eye to the fact that there are not many suitable jobs for these students. They are more interested in the preservation of the discipline than in the actual demand for such students in the job market.

Actually, it’s not a difficult decision. Those who are far-sighted will do something to transform the current structure of the discipline. They will steer the English departments to areas such as medicine, engineering, petrol, forestry, aerospace and information technology to produce interdisciplinary talents. Educators must get rid of their misconception that English is by nature a humanities subject. Instead, they should see it as an instrument that students can use to acquire sci-tech, economic and legal knowledge.

It’s a pity that some universities that boast excellent specialties choose to focus on the language itself instead of combining their other specialties with English. Just to set up and retain this discipline, they bring in teachers and professors in linguistics and Western literature but fail to pay sufficient attention to the career prospects of their students.

Only a small number of colleges should continue with their traditional practice of researching English linguistics, literature and similar things. Most colleges should either scrap their English departments or switch to producing interdisciplinary talents. At a time when almost everyone speaks some English, English departments are doomed if they do not offer added value.

You Ruohua (www.aoji.cn):

For years, millions of Chinese students have been undergoing the “torturous” process of learning English. A lot of people have spent a fortune on learning English in hope that it would open doors to good jobs. Parents also push their children to major in English in college for the same reason. As a result, English departments began to surge in colleges in just a few years.

However, these students and their parents later began to complain about the difficulty in finding a job. It’s no exaggeration to say that English is gradually becoming an unprofitable subject. Recent years have seen some prestigious universities scrap their English departments.

Fundamentally speaking, it’s because of the grim employment prospects of the students. In the 1980s and 1990s, most employers, including multinationals, joint ventures and large state-owned enterprises, had relatively low requirements for English graduates and hired any English graduate. Currently, in most cases, what employers need are not employees only fluent in English, but engineers, legal consultants, designers and the like who are good at English. The core competition on the labor market is not over English but other expertise. In other words, employers are looking for interdisciplinary talents.

Why is it so difficult for English departments to produce multi-skilled talents?