Chinese universities seek top students for maths and science classes to meet ‘strategic demands’
- Beijing wants best and brightest high school graduates to go into science and tech
- Thirty-six colleges are taking part in initiative to nurture talent and focus more on basic research
China’s leading universities will offer special classes in fundamental sciences for the country’s top students, as part of Beijing’s push to nurture talent in science and technology.
Beijing wants the best and brightest high school graduates to go into the industry to meet the country’s “significant strategic demands”.
Told to focus more on basic research, 36 universities – including prestigious Tsinghua and Zhejiang – said they would select the best students for special classes in these and other areas when the new academic year begins in September, according to enrolment plans announced in the past week.
These subjects have been unpopular with Chinese students in recent years because they are seen as offering less employment potential than the applied sciences, such as medicine and engineering.
The education ministry plan also aims to increase the numbers in humanities subjects like philosophy, history and ancient Chinese.