A new course on large language models and generative AI at Tsinghua University in Beijing has become extremely popular. This semester, students have packed classrooms, with some standing for the entire two-hour session just to participate. One student even described the scene as ‘crazier than the Spring Festival travel rush’.
The rush to attend comes after Tsinghua launched a program for all graduate students to improve their AI skills. This is part of China’s national push to develop talent in fast-growing technologies. AI is now part of general education, no longer just for science and engineering students. It’s becoming a key skill for everyone to learn.
Wu Fei, director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Zhejiang University, says, “Mastering AI is now a skill that everyone should acquire”. He believes that AI is no longer just for tech professionals, but is becoming a universal tool for learning, working, and researching.
In 2023, China’s Ministry of Education laid out a plan to update education and keep up with new technologies. This plan focuses on emerging sectors and new business models. The government also wants to improve undergraduate education and develop top-level universities and academic disciplines.
To meet the rising demand for AI professionals, universities like Tsinghua University, Wuhan University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have announced plans to expand their AI programs and enrollments. These universities are offering courses in AI and related fields, with some schools even integrating AI into interdisciplinary programs like medicine.
Fudan University’s Shanghai Medical College, for example, offers over 20 AI-related courses, including ‘Deep Learning in Medical Imaging’. This course is taught by professors from biomedical engineering, who know how important it is for different fields to work together. Song Zhijian, the course director, says, “AI is a specialized field. Without proper learning, medical students would find it hard to study it on their own”.
Song Jiahao, a 2023 undergraduate at Fudan, is working on a project that uses AI to analyze blood vessel images. He said that programming instructors check if students understand each section before moving on. Fudan plans to further integrate AI with medicine, including a ‘smart medicine’ major, which is now part of Shanghai’s top 10 future disciplines.
In addition to expanding AI courses, universities in China are focusing on partnerships with industry leaders. For example, Nanjing University in Jiangsu province has partnered with companies like Baidu and Huawei to develop AI tools for teaching and assessments. Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu has teamed up with Amazon, JD.com, and other tech companies to design AI courses that enhance practical skills.
These collaborations are aimed at meeting the growing demand for AI professionals. A recent report showed that job postings for roles like drone engineers and machine learning specialists grew by 40percent in February. Industry reports predict that China could face a shortage of 4 million AI professionals by 2030.
China is also focused on building a strong education system to support its future tech workforce. The country’s long-term education plan aims to make China a leader in education by 2035. The Ministry of Education’s Huai Jinpeng says, “Technological innovations like AI and robotics place new demands on our education system and talent development”.
Experts believe that universities and businesses need to work closely together to meet the growing demand for AI talent. Huai Jinpeng emphasized that higher education is key to China’s national strategy, and more efforts will be made to incorporate fields like AI and biotechnology into educational programs. As universities expand AI education, China is preparing its students for the challenges of the future tech-driven world.
