China’s 2025 national college entrance examination (Gaokao) has concluded, and as in previous years, the choice of college majors has become a hot topic across Chinese social media. In recent years, university graduates with foreign language-related degrees have faced increasing difficulty in securing employment, and foreign language majors are now facing potential cancellation at many universities.

In 2023, the University of Science and Technology of China published a public notice proposing the cancellation of six undergraduate programs, including English. It became the first university under China’s prestigious “Project 985” — a national initiative to build world-class institutions — to eliminate its English major. In 2024, the University of International Business and Economics and Beijing Language and Culture University announced the suspension of several graduate programs in less commonly taught languages, including Japanese translation and Italian interpreting. In May, the University of Jinan issued a notice on its 2023 program adjustment, stating it had stopped admitting students to nine undergraduate majors, including Korean and German. That same month, Shenyang Aerospace University published its 2024 admissions suspension notice, listing ten majors, including English, that would be paused. Several other institutions — including Henan University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Southwest Jiaotong University — have announced they will no longer admit undergraduate students to foreign language majors.

According to the Ministry of Education’s Record and Approval Results of Undergraduate Programs in General Higher Education Institutions (2018–2022), 109 universities across China have canceled 28 foreign language-related majors. Among them, 26 universities canceled Japanese majors, 21 canceled English, and 10 canceled Korean, making language programs some of the hardest-hit.

Due to low employment rates, foreign language majors in several provinces have been marked with “red warning” status. For instance, Spanish was included in the list of majors with the lowest employment rates in Hunan Province. The 2021 Analysis Report on the Distribution and Demand of Undergraduate Majors in Anhui Province listed Korean, Arabic, and English (translation) among the 20 majors with the lowest initial employment rates.
Job prospects for foreign language graduates in China remain modest. According to the 2023 China Undergraduate Employment Report, the average monthly salary for 2022 graduates in foreign language and literature programs was RMB 5,547 — lower than the national average of RMB 5,990.

Looking at long-term employment trends, 2019 graduates in the same field earned an average monthly salary of RMB 8,052 three years after graduation, compared to the national average of RMB 9,074.

This trend is not unique to China. Foreign language majors are also facing enrollment and employment challenges globally. According to data from the Modern Language Association (MLA), total enrollments in non-English language courses at U.S. universities declined by 29.3% between 2019 and 2021. In South Korea, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies halted freshman admissions for 13 majors, including English and Japanese, at its regional campuses beginning last year. Busan National University has suspended its German and French education programs starting this year.

The root of the problem lies in the growing mismatch between supply and demand for foreign language talent. Professor Shen Qi from the Center for China Foreign Language Strategy Studies at Shanghai International Studies University wrote in Wenhui Daily in 2017 that the issue can be described as “an oversupply of low-level talent and a shortage of high-level professionals.” That is, while many graduates possess basic listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation skills in English, few are truly proficient in the language and equipped with specialized expertise.

Professor Cai Jigang from the School of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Fudan University, wrote that the large-scale discontinuation of English, Japanese, French, and German majors is an irreversible trend. Taking English as an example, Cai argued that undergraduate instruction generally focuses on basic linguistic proficiency through superficial exposure to literature and culture, lacking a solid disciplinary foundation. As a result, students are trained in language skills alone, with little alignment to actual social and professional demands.

He called for a more realistic approach: “We must recognize that China only requires a limited number of professionals combining foreign languages with literature or linguistics for academic teaching and research. The real demand lies in producing interdisciplinary talent who combine foreign language skills with other domains — such as diplomacy, international trade, law, or journalism — where the foreign language serves as a tool. The development of such interdisciplinary professionals is both a requirement of China’s socialist market economy and a necessity in the new era.”

Editor: LQQ