A prominent Beijing institution has restructured multiple undergraduate programs, canceling traditional arts and humanities majors in response to the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. The strategic shift, which has triggered intense national discussion, highlights a broader institutional transition across higher education as universities adapt academic offerings to an era of human-machine collaboration.
The policy adjustments at the Communication University of China involve the phasing out of several distinct degrees, prompting public debate over the future of creative disciplines. University leadership defended the changes as a necessary modernization to align educational tracks with technological realities, while affected students reported that the integration of artificial intelligence into coursework had been underway for years.
Academic Restructuring and Program Reductions
The Communication University of China, widely recognized as a premier institution for media and arts education, canceled five distinct undergraduate arts majors in 2025, including photography, comics, visual communication design, new media art, and fashion design. Alongside these arts programs, the institution closed three humanities majors such as translation, six economics and management majors, and two science and engineering programs as part of a wider administrative overhaul.
Liao Xiangzhong, a Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference member and the top official at the university, explained the rationale behind the changes during the annual Two Sessions political meetings. Liao stated that the university scrapped traditional undergraduate majors because the future belongs to an era of human-machine cooperation, pointing out that translation and traditional media creation have been fundamentally transformed by emerging software tools.
Clarifications on Mergers Versus Cancellations
Following widespread public reaction and a viral video clip that climbed to the top five trending topics on the microblogging platform Weibo, university leadership clarified that many of the affected fields were not entirely eliminated. Instead, programs were reorganized into broader, updated academic disciplines as part of an ongoing eight-year institutional restructuring campaign designed to modernize course offerings.
Liao noted to domestic media that the traditional photography major could no longer exist as an independent standalone discipline because contemporary digital environments allow everyone to function as a self-media creator and recorder. Consequently, the photography program was integrated into a newly established curriculum titled film and television photography and production, alongside the creation of three new undergraduate programs focused on intelligent imaging art, intelligent audiovisual engineering, and intelligent engineering and creative design.
National Higher Education Reform Initiatives
The curriculum adjustments at the Communication University of China form part of a broader three-year university reform plan launched in 2025 across the country. This national initiative aims to expand artificial intelligence, data science, and technology-related academic programs amid ongoing debates regarding the capacity of generative models to replace human artists and professionals.
Other major academic centers have implemented similar structural changes. Jilin University in northeastern China, as well as East China Normal University and Nanchang University in eastern China, recently announced the closure of specific arts majors, including drama and film literature, broadcasting, directing, and animation, reflecting a nationwide push to modernize higher education for technology-driven industries.
Student Reactions and Institutional Adaptation
Undergraduate students whose majors were affected by the academic restructuring expressed little astonishment at the policy changes, noting that instructors had integrated artificial intelligence tools into classroom environments since at least 2022. An anonymous undergraduate photography major observed that utilizing software tools represents a natural transition to a new creative medium rather than an existential threat to personal ingenuity.
specialized art institutions across China are actively institutionalizing artificial intelligence within their specialized departments. In 2024, the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts established the country's first dedicated School of Artificial Intelligence Art, while the China Academy of Art introduced a professional doctoral track in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Art Design in 2025.
Future Implementation and Pedagogical Challenges
While institutional leaders emphasize technological adaptation, some graduates and academic observers have voiced concerns regarding the complete elimination of specialized tracks. A visual communication design graduate from the Communication University of China argued that the challenges introduced by emerging technologies should be resolved within individual fields rather than through the outright removal of traditional disciplines.
University officials have indicated that internal guidelines have been formulated to prevent students from experiencing skill degradation due to overreliance on automated systems, though specific regulatory details have not yet been publicly disclosed. As universities continue to navigate the intersection of automation and higher education, the long-term balance between technical proficiency and foundational human creativity remains a central focus for academic planners.
