Inequality in the Choice of Majors Among University Students of Different Economic Levels in the Context of the Expansion of Higher Education in China
- DOI
- 10.2991/assehr.k.211215.034How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- Higher education expansion; Major selection; Regional economical levels
- Abstract
The expansion of higher education in China has increased access to a large number of universities, but it has brought inequality in the choice of majors for university students. To examine the relationship between the choice of majors of Chinese higher education students and the level of economic development of their regions, which has been rapidly expanding since 1999, this study analyses national economic development and national higher education university enrolment data collected by China’s National Bureau of Statistics over the decade 2010-2019. This study classifies high, medium and low-income professions and regions with high, medium and low levels of economic development based on the per capita income of graduates in each profession and the per capita GDP of each region in China respectively. The results show that the economic level of a student’s region affects the student’s major choice, with a higher proportion of students in high-economic level regions choosing high-income majors, while a higher proportion of students in low-income regions choose low-income majors. This gap has been increasing over the past decade.
- Copyright
- © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Zishan Liu PY - 2021 DA - 2021/12/15 TI - Inequality in the Choice of Majors Among University Students of Different Economic Levels in the Context of the Expansion of Higher Education in China BT - Proceedings of the 7th Annual International Conference on Social Science and Contemporary Humanity Development (SSCHD 2021) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 187 EP - 192 SN - 2352-5398 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211215.034 DO - 10.2991/assehr.k.211215.034 ID - Liu2021 ER -