The 2022 national master's degree admissions examination is approaching. It is understood that in recent years, the " postgraduate entrance examination craze" has continued to heat up. In 2020, the number of master's degree applicants nationwide was 3.41 million, breaking the 3 million mark for the first time. In 2021, the number will be 3.77 million. The application data for 2022 has not been released yet, but judging from the application data for master's degree students released by some universities, the number of applicants for many universities is increasing compared with last year.
Some college students who choose to go to graduate school will face a choice: should they continue studying their major or change their major? Relatively speaking, the cross-professional postgraduate entrance examination is more challenging than the postgraduate entrance examination for this major. So how many undergraduate students choose to change majors when studying for graduate school? Which subject has a higher proportion of people choosing to change majors for postgraduate studies? Why do they choose to change majors? The answer can be found in the "2021 Chinese Undergraduate Employment Report" (Employment Blue Book) edited by the Max Research Institute.
The proportion of undergraduate graduates studying for postgraduate studies has increased by 3 percentage points in 5 years
The "2021 China Undergraduate Employment Report" shows that the proportion of domestic undergraduate graduates studying for postgraduate studies in China has increased year by year from 13.4% in 2016 to 16.4% in 2020, which is an increase 3 percentage points. Among them, the proportion of graduates from " double first-class " colleges and universities in China (32.5%) far exceeds that of local undergraduate colleges and universities (13.2%), and the increase in the proportion of graduates from " double first-class" colleges and universities in 2020 is particularly obvious. , an increase of 2.5 percentage points compared to 30% in 2019.
Judging from the proportion of graduate students in various disciplines, the three major disciplines of medicine, agriculture, and science continue to occupy the top three postgraduate disciplines, exceeding 20% ​​for three consecutive years, and showing a continuous upward trend. Among them, the proportion of medical graduate students has ranked first for three consecutive years, which is related to the training characteristics of the relevant fields of this major and the requirements of the job market.
In addition, the proportion of graduate students in the 2020 class of engineering (18.8%) increased the most, an increase of 2.7 percentage points compared with the class of 2018 (16.1%); followed by agriculture (24.7%), compared with the class of 2018 (22.2%). increased by 2.5 percentage points.
More than a quarter of undergraduate graduates have chosen to change majors to study for graduate school.
The survey shows that undergraduate graduates have good employment prospects (52%), want to go to a better university (48%) and have career development needs (46%). The main motivation for choosing graduate school. At the same time, 13% of graduates said that the reason for choosing graduate school was to change their major.
So how many graduates from graduate school actually changed their major? Data show that the proportion of undergraduate graduates in 2020 who changed majors from postgraduate studies was 26%. The proportion of local undergraduate colleges and universities that changed majors was even higher, 27%. The proportion of graduates from "double first-class" colleges and universities that changed majors was 23%.
Looking at different disciplines, the proportion of cross-professional graduate students in economics and management is higher, while that in medicine is the lowest. In the class of 2020, the proportions of management and economics postgraduate students who switched majors were 44% and 40% respectively; the proportion of medical postgraduate students who switched majors was 12%. Other lower subjects include history (13%) and law (14% ). The proportion of medical postgraduate students is high, but the proportion of changing majors is the lowest. This is related to the long training cycle and high requirements for medical professional talents. (Note: The proportion of postgraduate students in each discipline who switch majors = the number of domestic graduates in each discipline who have switched majors/the total number of graduates in that discipline.)
Competing with interests, hobbies and career planning is the main reason for cross-professional graduate studies
Relatively speaking, the cross-professional postgraduate entrance examination is more challenging than the postgraduate entrance examination for this major. So why do they choose to change majors for graduate school? Data shows that among the 2020 undergraduate graduate students who changed majors, 40% said that they chose the new major out of interest, and 31% of the students believed that the new major was more in line with their career plans. The proportions of those who chose to change majors because of "good employment prospects" and "easy to get admitted" were 15% and 14% respectively.
further analyzed the subject categories with high major conversion rates and found that 35% of the students who took the cross-major postgraduate entrance examination in economics because the new major was more in line with their career plans, which is higher than the national average. It is recommended that career development planning education should be paid attention to in the training of postgraduate talents in related disciplines to better meet the needs of students.
Data description:
The tracking evaluation of the training quality of the 2020 undergraduate students six months after graduation was completed in early March 2021, with a national undergraduate sample of 124,000.
The tracking evaluation of the training quality of the 2019 college students six months after graduation was completed in early March 2020, with a national undergraduate sample of 126,000.
The tracking evaluation of the training quality of the 2018 college students six months after graduation was completed in early March 2019, with a national undergraduate sample of 152,000.
The tracking evaluation of the training quality of the 2017 college students six months after graduation was completed in early March 2018, with a national undergraduate sample of 156,000.
The tracking evaluation of the training quality of the 2016 college students six months after graduation was completed in early March 2017, with a sample of 147,000 undergraduate students nationwide.
(Data analysis: Max Research Institute. If you need to reprint, please indicate the source.)
Source: China Education News
