China to Expand Undergraduate Enrollment at Double First-Class Universities by 76,000, Prioritizing AI and Emerging Disciplines

At a September 23 State Council Information Office briefing, Guo Peng, director of the Ministry of Education's development planning department, said undergraduate enrollment expansion at Double First-Class universities will continue: 24,000 more places this year, bringing the three-year total to 62,000 additional undergraduate admission slots. From 2027 to 2030, at least another 76,000 places will be added, with priority support for artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, biomedicine, new energy and other frontier and emerging interdisciplinary fields, along with support for new campuses and improved basic teaching conditions.

The expansion directs both enrollment capacity and disciplinary structure toward fields such as artificial intelligence, directly changing undergraduate intake and the pace of talent supply in related majors, which in turn affects university AI curricula and faculty staffing, corporate campus recruitment and the target user base of AI education products. The policy also calls for new campuses and improved laboratory and other teaching conditions, indicating the expansion involves resource investment rather than enrollment numbers alone. The briefing gave only totals and directions, without annual, disciplinary or institution-level quotas, so the actual pace of implementation still needs follow-up documents. Undergraduate enrollment capacity in artificial intelligence and other frontier interdisciplinary fields will grow, changing application and training scale in related majors. Universities must expand faculty, curricula and laboratory resources in step, raising the potential user base for AI education products and teaching services.