In 2025, the issue of difficulty in enrollment at private higher education institutions in China has become more prominent. Some schools have lowered their admission scores, with a few even removing them entirely. Analysts believe that under the Chinese Communist Party’s goal of becoming a “powerhouse” and a “strong nation” in higher education, universities have been expanding their enrollment year after year. However, the phenomenon of college graduates facing unemployment immediately upon graduation is severe, and some private institutions are finding the market increasingly cold.
In a report by the “China News Weekly” on August 23, the topic of the cold enrollment of undergraduate institutions operated by private entities has sparked attention. The predicament faced by private colleges and universities is a problem that all higher education institutions have to confront.
In 2025, enrollment at private institutions seems particularly challenging. Currently, private higher education institutions in China make up about 31% of the total number of higher education institutions. Among them, there are 388 private ordinary undergraduate institutions and 23 private vocational schools at the undergraduate level.
In several provinces, many private institutions are experiencing a significant shortage of students, with some even having “zero applicants.” For example, at a private institution in Guangdong, even after the second round of admissions, there were still 5626 vacant spots.
Guangdong Zhanjiang University of Science and Technology had originally planned to enroll 9086 undergraduate students in 2025. However, the actual number of undergraduate admissions was 6,936, leaving a gap of 2150 students, accounting for about 24% of the planned enrollment. The university had to conduct three rounds of recruitment to fill 76% of the enrollment quota.
The enrollment challenges faced by Zhanjiang University of Science and Technology in Guangdong Province are not isolated cases. In Guangdong Province, out of the 24 private undergraduate colleges, 14 of them had to resort to supplementary admissions due to not reaching full capacity in 2025.
Additionally, this year’s admissions at universities have seen a decrease in scores with each round. According to official Chinese media reports, the first round of general undergraduate admissions in Guangdong saw a 10-point decrease from the initial lowest admission line, followed by a further 15-point decrease in the second round, and an 11-point decrease in the third round. Such supplementary admissions mainly occurred at private institutions.
The enrollment challenges faced by some private institutions in Guangdong are not the most severe. In Guangxi, more than one private university has announced a “fourth round of admissions plan” without specifying a minimum admission score, such as Guilin University of Information Technology and Nanning University of Science and Technology.
Critics have voiced their discontent online, stating that such practices are “unfair.” The “fourth round of admissions” in Guangxi serves as a warning bell, signaling a crossroads in the 2025 college entrance examination reform. The entire education system is undergoing a severe test of value reconstruction. With the complete disappearance of minimum score requirements, where should the value anchor of higher education diplomas lie? This may be one of the most difficult educational questions to answer in contemporary China.
In Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China, a private institution held five rounds of admissions, but the gap still exceeded 30%. In Yunnan Province in the southwest, some private institutions went even further, conducting six rounds of admissions.
The difficulty in employment for current university graduates is an undeniable fact. The tuition fees at private colleges generally range from 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, higher than public institutions. Over four years of undergraduate study, students would have to invest tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan. However, many graduates end up unemployed immediately after graduation, forced to work in delivery or cleaning jobs, which do not require a higher education background.
Amid disappointment, people are beginning to consider the return on investment of their undergraduate diplomas. Is it worth spending money in this manner?
The number of candidates registering for the Chinese college entrance examination experienced a decrease for the first time in 2025 after seven consecutive years of growth. In 2025, a total of 13.35 million candidates registered for the exam, 70,000 fewer than in 2024.
The Chinese Communist Party regards the number of university students as one of the indicators of being a “strong nation” in higher education. The goal is to raise the gross enrollment rate in higher education to 60% by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period and to transition from high-speed, large-scale growth in higher education to high-quality, connotative development. The term “14th Five-Year Plan” refers to China’s fourteenth five-year plan period from 2021 to 2025.
By 2024, China’s gross enrollment rate in higher education had already exceeded 60%, surpassing the target of 60%. However, as some private institutions continue to lower their admission scores, or even abolish score requirements altogether, the issue of higher education quality is being called into question.
Qin Jianbo, who fled China in March 2025, views the higher education he received in China this way: “The university filled my mind with useless socio-economic theories. After graduation, I could only work as a migrant worker, toiling hard but achieving nothing.”
In August 2021, the official Chinese media Xinhua Net commented on Chinese higher education: “Within the global context, no other country has such a large population receiving higher education. Once the innovative potential of the higher education population is unleashed, China’s economy will once again undergo significant changes.”
However, the reality is that the number of university students is increasing each year, but the Chinese economy continues to decline, leaving graduates with fewer job opportunities.
In 2025, the number of graduates from ordinary universities in China reached 12.22 million, an increase of 430,000 compared to the previous year, setting a new historical record and making the already highly competitive job market even more challenging.
A female graduate student blogger from the 2025 cohort in Zhejiang Province shared her experience, stating that from autumn recruitment last year to spring recruitment in April, she sent out a total of 8,000 resumes. Despite attending every job fair during the recruitment process, none of the 8,000 resumes resulted in a job offer.
The value and prestige of a Chinese university diploma have diminished since the expansion of admissions. While the Ministry of Education of the Chinese Communist Party admitted that the expansion of admissions in universities post-2008 was too rapid, they began increasing the proportion of admissions for postgraduate students in 2009 against the backdrop of the global financial crisis.
Currently, a large number of Chinese universities are experiencing the phenomenon of “reverse undergraduate-graduate ratio,” where the number of postgraduate students exceeds that of undergraduate students.
The surge in China’s higher education gross enrollment rate above 60% can be traced back to the turning point in 1999. In November 1998, economist Tang Min submitted a proposal to the central government in his personal capacity titled “Effective Ways to Initiate China’s Economic Development – Doubling the Enrollment.” In this proposal, he presented five reasons for expanding admissions, with two points related to the adverse employment environment in China and promoting consumption to stimulate economic growth. One point highlighted the potential vicious competition that would arise if a large number of unemployed workers from enterprise reforms were to compete with young people in the job market. The other point emphasized that education was recognized as a primary demand for the people, and expanding admissions could boost domestic demand and drive economic growth.
According to Chinese media reports, at the beginning of 1999, the CCP government planned to increase the enrollment scale by 21% compared to 1998. However, when the expansion policy was officially implemented in June 1999, the increase was an astounding 47% leap. Specifically, in 1998, the number of enrollments in Chinese higher education was around 1.08 million, which increased to 1.59 million in 1999. On this basis, the annual enrollment in regular colleges and universities reached 2.206 million in 2000, with the number exceeding 2.5 million in 2001, representing year-on-year growth rates of 38% and 13.3%, respectively.