China revamps higher education with three-tier university system amid jobs slowdown, ageing population

New Delhi: A decade after launching its 2015 'Double First-Class Initiative' to take its top universities and academic disciplines global, China is embarking on a broader overhaul of higher education, linking it to national and strategic goals amid a slowing jobs market, global R&D chokepoints and an ageing population.

The September 20 guidelines issued by the Communist Party's Central Committee and State Council - 'Opinions on Advancing University Reform by Category' - propose a new three-tier classification of higher education institutions: research-oriented universities, industry-focused universities, and skills/vocational institutions.

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Beijing's latest policy, anchored in the STEM- and industry-focused 15th Five-Year Plan for Educational Development, marks a shift from education "massification" to more focused consolidation.

As per the guidelines, elite 'Double First-Class' institutions will continue as Tier 1 research universities, focusing on breakthrough technologies such as AI, advanced materials and quantum computing. The focus comes amid emerging geopolitical chokepoints and R&D roadblocks, particularly with the US.

The second tier of application-oriented universities will focus on practice-oriented talent, industry-education integration, technological innovation and research commercialisation, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

This is significant as global industry shifts to new-age technologies such as electric vehicles, AI and quantum technology, requiring skilled talent to help China advance in critical technologies.

The third tier will comprise skills-oriented universities focused on cultivating master craftsmen and highly skilled professionals through employment-oriented training and support for a modern industrial system.

The same must be read alongside reports of increasing youth unemployment amid a sluggish labour market, partly due to the mushrooming of universities offering generic degree programmes that are not translating into jobs.

Beijing has taken corrective steps in recent years, from its 'Red/Yellow card' rule, which can trigger downsizing or cancellation for low employment ratios, to scrapping thousands of 'obsolete' undergraduate courses.

Another major concern facing economies such as India - but one China has had to address earlier - is demographics. As birth rates fall, China's college- and school-age populations are expected to decline over the next decade, even as gross college enrolment has crossed 60%. Its college-age population is projected to peak around 2032 and fall by 30-40% thereafter.

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The demographic shift is expected to reduce demand for generic universities, prompting fresh categorisation to improve funding efficiency, support top-tier R&D institutes, and consolidate regional institutions and specialised industrial hubs.

Meanwhile, China's 'Double First-Class' initiative continues to show results.

Phil Baty, Chief Global Affairs Officer of the Times Higher Education rankings, has recently pointed to 'tectonic' shifts in global education, with the 2027 rankings for the first time reporting a Chinese university ranked higher than any university in continental Europe - Tsinghua University is at 11th place, overtaking Switzerland's ETH Zurich.

"There are the lowest ever number of the US, the UK and continental European universities in the world top 200 - and the highest number of Chinese universities," he has recently noted.