(Yicai) March 11 -- More than 10 of China’s top universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University in Beijing, have announced plans to expand undergraduate enrollment this year with a view to cultivating more talent in cutting-edge technology fields such as artificial intelligence.

Peking University will increase its undergraduate admissions by 150 places in 2025, focusing on national strategic needs, basic disciplines, and emerging frontier fields, it said on March 8. The students will be trained at Yuanpei College, the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, and the College of Engineering, it added.

Tsinghua University also set out plans earlier this month to increase the number of undergrad places by around 150. It will set up a new general education college aimed at nurturing interdisciplinary talent in AI and other areas to meet the nation’s strategic and social development needs.

As a country, China will further expand the undergrad intake at ‘Double First-Class’ universities this year, aiming to add 20,000 places on top of the 16,000 added last year, Zheng Shanjie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference on March 6 during the Two Sessions, the country’s key policy-setting meetings.

Double First-Class refers to the world-class universities and first-class disciplines initiative that the government launched in 2017 to boost the research capabilities and talent cultivation of the country’s higher education institutions. Some 147 universities have been identified through this initiative so far.

In addition to Tsinghua and Peking, several other Double First-Class universities have also revealed plans to expand enrollment this year. They included Renmin University of China, China Agricultural University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Sun Yat-sen University, Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Sichuan University. 

China's gross enrollment ratio of higher education -- calculated by dividing the number of students in higher education by the total population aged between 18 and 22 -- has reached 60 percent, Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, told Yicai. 

But as the proportion of top undergraduate institutions remains relatively low, it is still necessary to promote the expansion of undergraduate enrollment in quality universities, Chu added.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev