Jobless cause major problem

就业率决定专业生死？

Is college, which is supposed to be an incubator for academic interests and independent thinking, being transformed into a factory solely for producing professionals for a certain trade?
难道说，本应是学术兴趣和独立思维孵化器的大学正逐渐被转变成仅仅为某一特定行业提供专业人士的工厂吗？

These worries are triggered by a Ministry of Education (MOE) announcement on November 21. If the employment rate of graduates in a college major is below 60 percent for two consecutive years, the major’s enrollment quota will be reduced till it is phased out completely.
这种担忧源于教育部于11月21日发表的一篇公告。如果一个专业其毕业生的就业率连续两年低于60%的话，那么该专业的招生名额将被逐年削减直到彻底淘汰。

The ministry is sounding an alarm to universities, which haven’t paid enough attention to graduate employment, said Zhao Yuehua. He is a senior editor of the magazine China University Students Career Guide.
《中国大学生就业》杂志的资深编辑赵月华(音译)说，教育部正在给那些还没给予毕业生就业问题足够重视的高校敲响警钟。

Zhao explained: “Universities have been focusing on expanding their enrollment. But the job market may not see a growth in demand as big as that in enrollment.”
赵月华解释说：“各大高校一直致力于扩大生源。但就业市场需求的增加并没有跟上大学扩招的脚步。”

Establishing new majors is a means of expanding student numbers, but there may be little difference among these subdivided specialties.
设立新专业是扩大生源的一种方式，但这些细分出来的专业之间几乎没有差别。

“With similar knowledge and skills, graduates are in fierce competition for the same, limited occupations,” said Zhao.
“在所具备的知识和技巧差不多的情况下，大学毕业生为了有限的同一职位而展开了激烈的竞争。”赵月华说道。

Some scholars are worried that the ministry’s new policy is advocating a market-oriented college education.
一些学者担忧，教育部新政正使得大学教育趋于市场化。

Han Zijing, a professor of Chinese language at Chongqing Normal University, is one of them.
来自重庆师范大学的中文系教授韩子静(音译)便是其中之一。

“Blindly chasing after the ever-changing market demand to add or subtract a specific major will aggravate the unemployment among graduates,” said Han.
韩子静说，“为了盲目追求日新月异的市场需求，而增加或减少某一特定专业，这将使得毕业生失业的境遇雪上加霜。”

Take the major of law as an example. This year MyCOS lists law studies as one of the 10 college majors with the highest risk of unemployment.
就拿法律专业来说，今年麦可思数据有限公司将其列为失业率最高的十大大学专业之一。

In the past decades, with the law major getting popular in the job market, many universities, whether they were strong in liberal arts or science and technology, established the major of law and enrolled a large number of students. This has generated an oversupply of law students.
在过去数十年里，随着法律专业在就业市场的日渐吃香，许多大学，无论重文的还是重理的，都设立了法律专业并招收了大量学生。这导致了法律专业学生供大于求。

He Mingyi, 21, is studying law at Beijing University of Technology. He is not confident to compete with law students from renowned law schools in the job market.
21岁的何明亦(音译)现在北京工业大学就读法律专业。他没什么信心去和那些毕业于知名法律院校的同类专业学生竞争。

“My university is strong in engineering instead of law studies,” said He.
“我们学校擅长的是工程学科，并非法律专业。”何说。

The ministry’s policy, according to Zhao Yuehua, is urging universities to think over their characteristics and allocate resources to strong majors instead of scattering resources on weak ones.
赵月华表示，教育部的政策旨在促使各大学重新考虑自己的特色，将资源分配在强势专业上，而不是分散到弱势专业上去。

He Mingyi is also disappointed about his college courses. “The courses are centered on one theme: help students to pass the national judicial examination and land a job,” said He.
何明亦也对自己的大学课程很失望。“这些课程都集中在同一主题上，那就是帮助学生通过国家司法考试，并找到一份工作。”何明亦说。

But He is actually more interested in learning about legal philosophy. “I want to enhance my logical and critical thinking during college years,” said He.
但事实上，他对一些法理学方面的知识更感兴趣。“在大学期间，我想增强自己的逻辑思维和辩证思维。”他说。

Under job-hunting pressure, fewer and fewer college students would like to dive into basic humanities such as literature, history and philosophy.
在就业的压力之下，愿意深入研究诸如文学、历史和哲学这样的人文基础学科的大学生越来越少了。

Han, professor in Chinese language, complained that her students go after skill training courses that can help them gain vocational certificates, but just skip “useless” basic courses in appreciating literature.
中文系韩教授就抱怨说，她的学生都追求能帮他们获得职业证书的技能训练课程，而忽略“没用的”文学欣赏基础课程。

Chinese language and literature is on MyCOS’s list of college majors with bleak employment outlook this year. The major seems to be in danger of being phased out according to MOE’s new policy.
今年，在由麦可思公司发布的“年度就业前景黯淡的大学专业排行榜”上，中国语言文学专业也是榜上有名。就教育部新政看来，该专业似乎有被淘汰的危险。

Xiao Haitao, a professor from the institute of higher education at Shenzhen University, clarifies that the policy is targeted at majors of vocational training, such as computer science and engineering.
深圳大学高等教育学院教授肖海涛(音译)澄清说，该政策是针对例如计算机科学与工程学这样的职业培训类专业，。

“Majors of basic science shouldn’t be canceled even if their employment rates stand below 60 percent,” said Xiao.
“即便是就业率低于60%，基础科学类的专业也不应该被取消。”肖海涛说。

But is phasing out a major of vocational training the only way to improve employment? Updating the teaching content ?in accordance with the need of employers may be a better solution, said Tian Jiechang.
但淘汰职业培训类专业是改善就业情况的唯一途径吗？更新教学内容，以便与用人单位需求保持一致，这可能是种更好的解决方法，田杰昌(音译)说道。

Tian is the deputy chief of the department of student affairs at Shandong Jiaotong University. At Tian’s university, students majoring in computer science learn Japanese. For the school has seen a boom in software outsourcing business between China and Japan in recent years.
田杰昌是山东交通大学学生处副处长。在他所在的学校，主修计算机科学的学生也要学习日语。因为该校已经看到近年来中日软件外包业务的蓬勃发展。

“If a major has a bleak employment outlook, we may downsize the enrollment or enroll students every two years. But we seldom think of axing it,” said Tian.
“如果某一专业就业前景黯淡，我们会削减该专业的招生人数，或是每两年才招进一届学生。但我们很少会去考虑取消该专业。”田杰昌说。