Chinese universities cut and merge creative degrees as AI reshapes courses

Chinese universities are closing or combining language and creative degree programmes as artificial intelligence changes how institutions assess their employment value. TechRadar, drawing on reporting from Al Jazeera English, describes a restructuring that is removing some standalone courses while introducing degrees built around AI and technical skills.

The changes matter beyond the names on university prospectuses. They signal a shift in what institutions expect graduates to offer: not just expertise in translation, photography or design, but an ability to apply that expertise alongside automated tools. Whether those changes preserve the broader skills taught by traditional degrees is a central question.

According to the report, the Central Academy of Fine Arts has dropped courses in illustration, photography and translation on the grounds that AI has weakened their value for money. Fashion design degrees are also being scrapped across the sector, with universities emphasising closer collaboration between people and machines in creative work.

A wider overhaul of undergraduate education

The course changes sit within a state campaign to guide students toward semiconductors, robotics and AI—industries Chinese authorities consider important to the country’s prospects.

Between 2021 and 2025, universities in China closed or suspended 12,200 undergraduate programmes and introduced roughly 10,200 new ones. More than 30% of undergraduate programmes nationwide were affected by the restructuring, with arts, humanities and languages bearing the largest cuts. Those figures describe the broader overhaul, rather than establishing that AI alone caused every closure.

A survey covering 70 universities recorded cuts to five translation majors, eight Japanese majors and five German majors. The pressure on language education raises questions about how narrowly universities should define the work those degrees prepare students to do.

Alex Shi, who began her creative career after studying English translation and interpretation, argues that the cuts risk overlooking communication and critical-thinking skills. As reported by TechRadar, she accepts that AI could achieve extremely high translation accuracy but maintains that interpreting involves more than converting words between languages, including an individual translator’s style.

The distinction between cancelling a subject and reorganising its teaching is also important. The Communication University of China reportedly closed five programmes, including visual communication design, comics and photography. Its top official, Liao Xiangzhong, subsequently clarified that the majors had been merged into other disciplines rather than eliminated outright. Photography was incorporated into film and television photography.

New courses follow changing creative work

Alongside the closures, universities are introducing programmes in intelligent imaging art, intelligent audiovisual engineering, and intelligent engineering and creative design. Other courses combine artistic teaching with AI training rather than treating the two as separate tracks.

The report also points to emerging film and animation roles, including prompt engineer and AI animator. One industry worker described a change in production speed: work on characters or scenes previously took a month, while AI now allows a complete project to be delivered in that period. That is an individual account, not a sector-wide productivity measure.

What to watch next is whether hybrid programmes retain the depth of the disciplines they replace. The reported mergers show that a disappearing degree title does not necessarily mean its subject has vanished. But as universities reposition courses around machine-assisted production, students face a changing definition of professional preparation—and employers’ expectations are changing with it.