China to Add More Than 76,000 Undergraduate Places at Double First-Class Universities by 2030
China will expand undergraduate enrollment at its "Double First-Class" universities by more than 76,000 places between 2027 and 2030, the Ministry of Education said at a State Council Information Office press conference on September 23.
Guo Peng, director-general of the ministry’s Department of Development Planning, said Double First-Class institutions added 38,000 undergraduate places across 2024 and 2025, followed by another 24,000 this year — a three-year increase of 62,000.
The 15th Five-Year Plan outline sets a target of more than 100,000 additional undergraduate places at Double First-Class universities, leaving at least 76,000 still to come over the remaining years of the plan. The school-age population for higher education will keep growing throughout the period, Guo said.
He stressed that the expansion is not simply a numbers exercise. Discipline and program mixes will be adjusted to match national strategic needs, with priority support for frontier technologies and emerging interdisciplinary fields such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, biomedicine and new energy.
On the funding side, the ministry will draw on central budget investment and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support new campuses and to upgrade dormitories, canteens, sports facilities and laboratories.
The announcement came alongside broader 15th Five-Year Plan education targets. Vice Minister and spokesperson Wang Guangyan said China aims by 2030 for fairer and higher-quality basic education, more abundant upper-secondary and higher-education places, and a group of universities and disciplines ranked among the world’s best.
The scale involved is considerable. In 2025 China’s gross higher-education enrollment ratio reached 61.3%, with 48.73 million students in the system, and more than 20% of academic programs were adjusted during the previous five-year period. Vice Minister Du Jiangfeng said a new action plan will push discipline design toward serving national development rather than institutional interests alone.
Officials also signalled continued opening-up. In the 2024–2025 academic year, 380,000 international students from 191 countries and regions studied in China, and the ministry plans to keep building the "Study in China" brand while exporting Chinese standards in areas that include vocational education and "AI plus education."
For edtech and university service providers, the shape of the expansion matters as much as its size. The explicit tilt toward AI, semiconductors and biomedicine points to sustained demand for lab capacity, faculty and applied programmes in exactly the fields where Chinese universities are being asked to deliver strategic talent.
Guo Peng, director-general of the ministry’s Department of Development Planning, said Double First-Class institutions added 38,000 undergraduate places across 2024 and 2025, followed by another 24,000 this year — a three-year increase of 62,000.
The 15th Five-Year Plan outline sets a target of more than 100,000 additional undergraduate places at Double First-Class universities, leaving at least 76,000 still to come over the remaining years of the plan. The school-age population for higher education will keep growing throughout the period, Guo said.
He stressed that the expansion is not simply a numbers exercise. Discipline and program mixes will be adjusted to match national strategic needs, with priority support for frontier technologies and emerging interdisciplinary fields such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, biomedicine and new energy.
On the funding side, the ministry will draw on central budget investment and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support new campuses and to upgrade dormitories, canteens, sports facilities and laboratories.
The announcement came alongside broader 15th Five-Year Plan education targets. Vice Minister and spokesperson Wang Guangyan said China aims by 2030 for fairer and higher-quality basic education, more abundant upper-secondary and higher-education places, and a group of universities and disciplines ranked among the world’s best.
The scale involved is considerable. In 2025 China’s gross higher-education enrollment ratio reached 61.3%, with 48.73 million students in the system, and more than 20% of academic programs were adjusted during the previous five-year period. Vice Minister Du Jiangfeng said a new action plan will push discipline design toward serving national development rather than institutional interests alone.
Officials also signalled continued opening-up. In the 2024–2025 academic year, 380,000 international students from 191 countries and regions studied in China, and the ministry plans to keep building the "Study in China" brand while exporting Chinese standards in areas that include vocational education and "AI plus education."
For edtech and university service providers, the shape of the expansion matters as much as its size. The explicit tilt toward AI, semiconductors and biomedicine points to sustained demand for lab capacity, faculty and applied programmes in exactly the fields where Chinese universities are being asked to deliver strategic talent.
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