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Students’ major choice is a matter of luck
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A UNIVERSITY in central China is at the center of controversy over making its students take part in a lottery to find out which majors they can study after their first year.
The auditorium at the University of South China in Hunan Province was crowded on the evening of September 8 with hundreds of students waiting to find out if they had been lucky enough to gain a place in the major of their choice.
Second-year students from the university’s civil engineering department are required to focus on one of the department’s seven majors.
But if they want to graduate in the major of their choice then they either need to do exceptionally well during their first year or leave it to the luck of the draw.
Lu Qinghua, a university official, said: “We were forced to take these measures. If choosing a major is solely based on students’ wants, some majors will be overcrowded and others will have difficulty enrolling enough students.
“There are some other colleges that use this method,” Lu added.
Lu stressed that not all of the department’s 585 students had to rely on luck. The top 190 students in the department can choose their majors. And students who had their majors allocated under the lottery system could still get on to the major of their choice by changing places with other students.
However, not everyone agreed that this was a proper way of allocating majors.
Si Hanhan, a writer for news portal gmw.cn, said that instead of deciding majors in such an “irresponsible” way, universities should be readjusting the majors offered and eliminating those that don’t meet the needs of the job market, as well as offering more guidance to students when choosing their majors.
Si also said that the school’s policy of allowing the top students to choose their own majors was an act of “discrimination.”
An official surnamed Su with the publicity department of the university said the policy had been in place for years and the school had twice previously sought advice from instructors and students on the system.
“After one year of study, students whose performance is in the top 10 percent can apply to change majors,” she said.
A student who had just drawn a major told The Beijing Times newspaper: “I think it is quite fair. Students are encouraged to study hard to gain the chance to freely choose majors. Even if we get a dissatisfying major after the lottery, we can exchange it with others.”
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