“The mismatch of engineering graduates’ abilities and company needs, a student appraisal system that is focused on published research papers, among other problems, call for deep reflection on China’s education model,” Liang Xianping, a researcher with South China Normal University who was on the team that conducted the study, wrote in China Science Daily on Tuesday.
In many cases, what students are taught in engineering degrees turns out to be “useless” in the workplace, Liang wrote in the official Chinese Academy of Sciences newspaper.
Liang and other researchers interviewed 31 students, teaching staff and company executives for the study last year.
The team found textbooks are outdated, curriculum design is unsystematic and many students avoid enrolling in difficult basic science subjects such as mathematics and physics.
According to the education ministry, China has the “world’s largest engineering education system” – there were more than 6.7 million undergraduates in over 23,000 engineering programmes at universities and colleges last year.
But when President Xi Jinping presented the first national engineering awards in January, he stressed the need to develop a large team of high-calibre engineers.
