The long road to college autonomy

Want to major in a subject that will get you a well-paid job or in one you are passionate about but which still has good job prospects? Many Chinese colleges have been scrambling to respond to the needs of parents and students by offering wide-ranging and creative options that past generations could not have even imagined.

The hottest college majors are still accounting, finance, business administration, foreign languages, medicine and law, for they promise better returns on education investment. But outlandish ones abound too. What about becoming a bachelor of performing arts in in-flight services or Peking Opera or athletics? Or a degree in golf business management? You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Ironically, these majors have come under closer scrutiny of education regulators because they could produce unemployable graduates as the subjects are either too popular or cater to a niche market too small to justify specialized training at college.