Universities rush to set up big data and AI majors

Data science and big data technology remains the hottest major that universities plan to set up this year, followed by artificial intelligence, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

According to a list issued by the Ministry of Education, universities across the country have applied to establish 2,542 new majors in 2018. More than 220 universities have applied for data science and big data technology, far more than other majors. Last year, 250 universities got the approval to set up this course.

The ministry announced before accepting applications for new majors that universities should serve national strategy and economic and social development, setting up new majors in areas such as rural revitalization, healthy China, artificial intelligence, network security and obscure foreign languages.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a three-year plan to promote the development of artificial intelligence industry at the end of last year.

Under these plans, more than 100 universities have applied to set up robot engineering and intelligence science and technology majors. Many universities have also applied for intelligent manufacturing engineering and artificial intelligence majors.