36% of Chinese Undergraduates Choose Engineering, Compared To 5% in US and UK (economist.com)
- Reference: 0178203214
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/27/1340213/36-of-chinese-undergraduates-choose-engineering-compared-to-5-in-us-and-uk
- Source link: https://www.economist.com/china/2025/06/26/chinas-new-army-of-engineers
The surge comes as China's government directs universities to [1]focus on strategic industries and technological bottlenecks . Over 600 Chinese universities now offer undergraduate programs in artificial intelligence, a field the Communist Party vows to dominate by 2030. In 2023, officials started telling universities to overhaul their degree programs, and the education ministry announced an "emergency mechanism" to create degrees more quickly to meet "national priorities." Over half of China's young people now complete some form of higher education through 3,000-odd institutions. Youth unemployment reached 14.9% in May, driving students toward technical fields they believe offer better job prospects.
[1] https://www.economist.com/china/2025/06/26/chinas-new-army-of-engineers
What are the other 95% studying (Score:2)
There is generally more money in law, medicine, etc. than in the engineering or science fields. The educational system is a reflection of our society.
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Probably French literature or basket weaving. Seriously, though, the US is a major exporter of highly advanced manufactured products. One of the biggest categories is commercial aircraft components, followed by pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and machinery. The US is a highly technical nation. I wouldn't be worried.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Though examples like Destin from Smarter Every Day [1]I Tried to Make Something in America [youtu.be] show that it's becoming difficult to manufacturer something in America as companies close and people with the knowledge retire.
[1] https://youtu.be/3ZTGwcHQfLY?feature=shared
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Ok boomer. China is going to eat our lunch in the coming years. Have you noticed what car holds the fastest Nurburgring time? It’s a Chinese EV. [1]https://www.carscoops.com/2025... [carscoops.com]
They’re every bit as capable engineering wise.
[1] https://www.carscoops.com/2025/06/xiaomi-shatters-its-nurburgring-record-again-and-immediately-launches-limited-edition/
Re: What are the other 95% studying (Score:1)
The original aircraft company of the Bros Wright still exists and still makes aircraft parts.
Re:What are the other 95% studying (Score:4, Interesting)
> law, medicine, etc. than in the engineering or science fields
In the U.S. the hot fields for making big money are finance, economics, and business. Many of our best and brightest are staying away from health care (too much education required, too much burnout, and too much yuck), engineering (too much math, not enough jobs), and law (yay?), and instead chasing the easy money of Wall Street. Which is really sad because Wall Street produces nothing of value for society.
Serves the hateful DEI universities here right (Score:2, Troll)
Unlike in the US, Chinese universities don't discriminate against male asians.
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Said the man from the least discriminated against group ever.
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What?!
Time you got out of your woke bubble.
study (Score:2)
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy... so that their children can study painting, poetry and music
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A beautiful sentiment, alas, each generation seems to push the reality forward another. It is always politics and war.
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And the Chinese aren't focusing on studying painting and poetry
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> I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy... so that their children can study painting, poetry and music
Hard times create strong men
Strong men create good times
Good times create weak men
And, weak men create hard times
The thing that impresses me is the demand to create weak men is now a real thing. And a certain number of young men are rebelling against the socially demanded feminization.
p.s. This is not a denigration of being feminine. Just that is not a masculine thing, which masculinity is best reserved for males.
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Socially demanded feminization? What the hell are you babbling about?
Well duh! (Score:2)
Engineering is not the same as opinion degrees. You'll be spending a lot of time in the lab and library, while others are punishing their livers while enjoying "The College Experience".
In the US, the prevailing opinion is that if you have a degree - any degree you are ubermenschen.
Part of how the student loan crisis happened. Parents and teachers taught this, and the kids just expected that with their degree, they were going to make a difference in a fast upgrading meaningful career. Where they were so
My experience with engineers in China (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked for 10 years in China with engineers. I'm one myself. This is what I learned:
Most go into it because they don't want to work with their hands. i.e. get dirty. It's not because they have any particular interest. It's for the money and social status. As such, ~80% of the ones I worked with were unimpressive. They do what they are told, nothing more, nothing less. Minimal problem solving skills. No curiosity. Your average US high school student would definitely know less engineering, but could do a better job without being micromanaged.
This isn't to say they were bad people. Some were friends. The system in China just tend to create a lot of these people. And if you are brute forcing a project and able to micromanage, it's a powerful resource.
The other ~10 percent were more typical of Western engineers. Loved technology, hands on, tinkered with stuff, curious, smart. And yeah, a bit nerdy. That said, the work culture still ties their hands. You're to stay in your lane. Don't question superiors. Do exactly as you are told. We had several meetings where it was explained that it is their job to call bullshit on me.
They liked that, but it didn't come naturally. There was one guy that was an absolute master at it. He was incredibly polite about it. So much so that when he started acting a certain way, I knew I'd effed up and just had to wait for him to politely tell me he must be wrong and could I please help him learn where he made a mistake. To this day, I still feel he was being sincere. Dude should teach classes in how to tell your boss he is wrong.
Anyway, just comparing engineering numbers in China and the US misses a lot of nuance.
More a cultural rather than national thing (Score:2)
Even in the US, the percentage of Chinese (and other Asian) students studying engineering is high, arguably comparable to the percentage in China. The percentage in Korea and Taiwan are also close to the percentage in China. This is a cultural thing much more than a national thing.
social (Score:2)
Apparently, they are not counting social engineering as engineering.
Maybe it's the unemployment... (Score:2)
Computer Engineering - 7.5% unemployment
Computer Science - 6.1%
This unemployment rate is on the level of art history.
Other engineering fields are between 3-4%. Much, much easier majors are at the same level. Who wants to take a hard major when an easy one gets the same shitty results?
Most of my coworkers in computer engineering are H-1Bs, very few citizens amongst them, and we're not slowing down with that. Wages have stagnated for the past 5 years.
So yeah, of course kids aren't choosing engineering in dro
China still build stuff (Score:4, Insightful)
You need government backing for the kind of projects that require engineers. Those kind of big projects aren't profitable for decades and decades and no shareholder is going to tolerate that.
We stopped doing all of that in the '80s when the party started to lurch to the right wing. The UK stopped when Thatcher invaded the Falklands and used it to cement her power and begin a campaign of privatization and government cuts... in the same way Bush Jr would use Iraq and Afghanistan years later to do the same.
If you want more engineers you need to bring back those big government projects, what kind of don't pay off until you're too old to care. Sort where you are planting a tree whose shade you will never sit in.
Re: (Score:2)
Right! Just like Spacex! ... wait. Just like the transcontinental railroad! ... umm, wait, that was private industry too. Just like the cellular telephone! ... oh, that was private industry too. The Unix operating system! ... again.
I'm sure there are SOME government programs that caused a leap in engineering. The B2 bomber! The ICBM! Nukes! There we go. The aircraft carrier! Now we're talking. We need more engineers for those kind of government programs, right?
The last major project I can think
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NASA made many important contributions that we’re all currently benefiting from.
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Um... SpaceX is on entirely funded by government contracts and investors chasing government contracts.
The Transcontinental railroad was from the 1860s. I mean when you have to go almost a hundred years back to find a large project that you can say was private... Not exactly helping your cause.
And I don't actually know much about the history of Unix, but the cellular phone system was heavily heavily heavily subsidized by the government.
As for major projects, your house. The United States governmen
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Railroads were highly government funded. Railroads were given government land based on miles of track laid, and railroads made money by selling that land to settlers.
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you make a great case for why we should be pursuing national high-speed rail it takes a lot of infrastructure investment and would require more people be involved in the engineering to build high speed rail and the renewable energy grid to power it.
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Why waste your time on high speed rail when there's the hyperloop!