China News Service, Beijing, October 19th. On October 15th, online registration for the 2027 National Master’s Degree Admissions Examination officially began. The report shows that although the scale of master's degree training continues to expand, the popularity of postgraduate entrance examinations has cooled down, and college students have become more rational in their choices. Among them, a higher proportion of graduates from science, engineering, agriculture and medicine are studying for postgraduate studies, and postgraduate studies are concentrated in basic disciplines and cutting-edge fields.
Data map: The preliminary examination of the 2026 National Master’s Degree Admissions Examination has officially begun. Photo by China News Service reporter Zhang Bin
The report, titled "2026 China Undergraduate Employment Report" (Employment Blue Book), was released by a third-party agency, Max. The report studied the postgraduate studies of fresh graduates in recent years and found that the decline in postgraduate applications reflects that undergraduates are becoming more rational in their decision-making, and the blind pursuit of academic qualifications is decreasing. The moderate decline in the enthusiasm for further studies will help screen out students with real scientific research interests and willingness to further their studies, and help improve the quality of postgraduate training.
The report mentioned that the proportion of undergraduate graduates pursuing further studies in different disciplines varies greatly. The proportion of undergraduate graduates in the Class of 2025 studying agriculture (30.0%), science (29.4%), medicine (27.3%), engineering (21.7%), history (21.5%), and law (20.7%) is at a high level, with all exceeding 20%. Among them, the proportion of graduate students in agriculture and science has increased by 4.4 percentage points in the past five years. The proportion of graduate students studying engineering also showed an upward trend, increasing by 1.6 percentage points over the same period. Science, engineering, agriculture, medicine and other highly professional and related occupations have higher academic requirements, and the proportion of their graduates studying at home is relatively high.
The proportion of postgraduate students studying education has dropped from 12.3% in the class of 2021 to 9.9% in the class of 2025. The decline is quite significant. This may be related to the adjustment in the willingness to study due to changes in the industry's job structure.
The report shows that the subject distribution of academic degrees pursued by undergraduate graduates in 2025 reflects the characteristics of equal emphasis on basic research and cutting-edge technology fields. A high proportion of the 2025 undergraduate graduates pursuing academic degrees choose basic subjects such as chemistry (4.7%), biology (4.6%), physics (3.0%), and mathematics (2.9%). Engineering fields such as materials science and engineering (4.0%), computer science and technology (3.8%), and mechanical engineering (3.0%) are also at the top.
Among them, the proportion of students entering computer science has increased by 0.7 percentage points compared with the class of 2024, which is a relatively large increase. The reason may be that with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, the demand for IT talents is diverging, and basic technical positions continue to shrink, while high-end R&D positions generally require a master's degree.
In the field of professional degree graduate students, electronic information ranked first with a proportion of 17.7%, an increase of 2.7 percentage points compared with the class of 2024, which is a large increase. Materials and chemical engineering (7.2%), machinery (6.2%), clinical medicine (6.2%), and energy and power (5.9%) follow closely behind. Among them, clinical medicine and energy and power also increased significantly compared with the previous session. Clinical medicine increased from 4.8% to 6.2%, and energy and power increased from 4.8% to 5.9%. Graduates' postgraduate studies are mainly concentrated in disciplines or professional fields closely related to cutting-edge technologies such as advanced materials, artificial intelligence, high-end equipment, and electronic information, which match the talent needs of national strategic emerging industries, medical and health, "double carbon" and other fields. (over)
