Ist es wirklich vertrauenswürdig, dass Pädagogische Hochschulen sich auf die Lehre von KI umstellen?
Over 600 universities across the country have offered majors in artificial intelligence. This time, it's the normal universities.
Recently, the School of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at Shaanxi Normal University is about to be inaugurated. This is yet another normal university that has made a high - profile layout in AI recently.
Since this year, many universities such as Huaibei Normal University, Nanning Normal University, and Inner Mongolia Normal University have successively established schools of artificial intelligence.
Even prestigious "Double First - Class" normal universities like Beijing Normal University, Central China Normal University, and Nanjing Normal University have taken the lead in the layout as early as when the Ministry of Education added the artificial intelligence major.
Author | Du Yilan
Editor | Mu Mu
The results of the record - filing and approval of undergraduate majors in ordinary higher education institutions by the Ministry of Education in 2024 show that -
In just one year, more than a dozen normal universities have added the artificial intelligence major.
However, beneath the boom, controversies are emerging:
How can normal universities lacking a background in engineering run an artificial intelligence discipline that requires high investment, high - tech density, and high competition?
How can they ensure continuous funding, and where can they get the teaching staff? How can the competitiveness of graduates be guaranteed?
Some experts have bluntly stated that as an emerging field, the knowledge system of artificial intelligence is being updated and iterated at an unprecedented speed. The knowledge structure of teachers has significantly lagged behind the industry development, which poses a huge challenge for them to teach artificial - intelligence - related courses.
Under these numerous questions, the AI path of normal universities may have just begun.
621 universities across the country are competing to layout in AI
Normal universities have also joined the competition
What has been the hottest major in recent years? Artificial intelligence definitely deserves a place in the answer.
Since being included in the undergraduate major catalog in 2018, artificial intelligence has been on the "fast - track" of universities' major layout.
According to the statistics of MyCOS Research, in just seven years, 621 universities across the country have successfully passed the record - filing or approval of this major.
The picture is from MyCOS Research
Moreover, at least 93 universities have established schools of artificial intelligence.
Most of them are science and engineering or comprehensive universities, and there are also many prestigious "985" and "211" universities such as Renmin University of China, Beihang University, Nanjing University, and Xidian University.
The picture is from Gaoji
Now, this boom has also spread to normal universities.
According to the incomplete statistics of Oak Lab, currently, 12 normal universities across the country, including Tianjin Normal University, Beijing Normal University, Central China Normal University, and Nanjing Normal University, have established schools of artificial intelligence.
Some of these universities choose to establish independent schools, while more have transformed from their schools of computer science. For example, Shaanxi Normal University and Huaibei Normal University, which recently established schools of artificial intelligence.
The data is from the official information of each university, compiled by Oak Lab
According to the official website of Shaanxi Normal University, its computer science discipline has a long history, dating back to the 1960s. It successfully replicated the Zhonghua - 102 computer and the DJS - 130 computer. In 1985, it established an undergraduate major in computer science and technology, and in 2000, it established the School of Computer Science. Until July this year, it was officially restructured into the School of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science.
Similarly, the School of Artificial Intelligence at Huaibei Normal University also originated from the School of Computer Science and Technology. It now offers two undergraduate majors, data science and big data technology, and intelligent science and technology, as well as three professional laboratories, with a total of 24 faculty members.
The reason why normal universities are intensively laying out schools of artificial intelligence is, on the one hand, due to their own survival dilemmas and transformation needs, and on the other hand, it is also inseparable from the high - level attention and strategic promotion of artificial intelligence development at the national level.
Not long ago, Oak Lab pointed out in the article "The wave of kindergarten closures has reached the college entrance examination admission field" that affected by multiple factors such as difficult employment and low enrollment, the preschool education major in normal universities has gradually become a "yellow - card" major.
Against this background, a group of normal universities have begun to seek transformation and actively seize the opportunity in emerging engineering fields.
Among them, artificial intelligence has become the most - added major in normal universities, without exception.
At the policy level, in April this year, the Ministry of Education released the "Catalog of Undergraduate Majors in Ordinary Higher Education Institutions (2025)", adding 29 new majors, including artificial intelligence education, intelligent audio - visual engineering, and digital drama, which are all AI - empowered directions.
In June, the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education further issued a notice to support universities in cultivating urgently needed talents for strategic emerging industries and future industries such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and low - altitude economy, and to establish a major - setting mechanism of "demand - triggered and immediate start", encouraging qualified universities to actively plan to set up relevant majors.
In August this year, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deeply Implementing the 'Artificial Intelligence +' Initiative", clearly proposing to promote artificial intelligence education at all educational levels, strengthen discipline construction, expand the scale of high - level talent cultivation, build an "extraordinary" cultivation mechanism for leading talents, and deepen industry - education integration and international cooperation.
Sun Jieyuan, the deputy secretary of the Party Committee and the president of Guangxi Normal University, talked about the original intention of establishing the School of Artificial Intelligence at the inauguration ceremony. He emphasized that they must actively embrace artificial intelligence to "build an independent system in this key field".
As a normal university, Guangxi Normal University will give full play to its disciplinary characteristics and advantages to promote the in - depth integration of AI and education.
Driven by a series of external policies, it seems to be an irresistible trend for normal universities to set up artificial intelligence majors.
However, there are still some controversies as to whether normal universities can truly run schools or majors in artificial intelligence well in terms of funds, resources, and teaching staff.
Without Yao Qizhi and billions of funds
How can normal universities run AI well?
From the perspective of the school's "genes", most normal universities focus on humanities and social sciences, and their foundation in science and engineering is relatively weak.
Taking Shaanxi Normal University and South China Normal University, two leading normal universities, as examples, although their computer science disciplines have a long development history, compared with their dominant disciplines such as education, their presence and resource - acquisition ability are still insufficient.
As a key university directly under the Ministry of Education and a "Double First - Class" construction university, Shaanxi Normal University has one national "Double First - Class" construction discipline - Chinese language and literature.
The 2025 ABC China University Major Ranking shows that the university's dominant majors are concentrated in fields such as secretarial science, science education, special education, and pedagogy. The rankings of computer science and technology and artificial intelligence majors are relatively low.
The picture is from ABC Ranking
Also a national "Double First - Class" construction university, South China Normal University's physics is a national "Double First - Class" construction discipline, and its School of Marxism has been approved as a national key Marxist school.
In the discipline evaluation of the Ministry of Education, four disciplines of the university, including psychology, Marxist theory, pedagogy, and physical education, were rated as Class A disciplines.
In the 2024 Soft Science Ranking of the Best Disciplines in Chinese Universities, a total of 27 first - level disciplines of South China Normal University were on the list. Among them, psychology ranked in the top 3% in the country (ranked 2nd in the country), remaining in the "top - notch disciplines in China"; pedagogy and Marxist theory ranked in the top 7% in the country, and physics and physical education ranked in the top 12% in the country. These four disciplines were all short - listed for the "first - class disciplines in China".
Although the computer science and technology of this university was also on the list, its ranking was outside the top 100.
The picture is from Soft Science
Previously, the "2025 ABC China University Major Ranking: Artificial Intelligence" list released by the China University Ranking (CNUR) showed that the top - ranked universities were all "Double First - Class" universities such as Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, and Peking University.
The "2025 Soft Science Ranking of Chinese University Majors" list released by Soft Science also showed that the top positions of the artificial intelligence major were also occupied by universities with strong comprehensive strength such as Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Xidian University, University of Science and Technology of China, and Southeast University.
In contrast, how did normal universities perform?
In the ABC Ranking, Beijing Normal University, Central China Normal University, and Shanghai Normal University ranked among the top three normal universities, ranking 31st, 70th, and 72nd in the country respectively.
Even the leading normal universities can only rank in the upper - middle position in the country in the artificial intelligence major, not to mention ordinary normal universities.
This phenomenon clearly reflects that in the highly emerging and technology - intensive field of artificial intelligence, there is still a significant gap between traditional normal universities and top - notch comprehensive science and engineering universities.
In addition, due to the differences in discipline layout and construction foundation, there is an obvious gap in resource - acquisition ability between normal universities and science and engineering universities, especially in terms of teaching staff structure and funding investment.
Specifically, the School of Artificial Intelligence at South China Normal University focuses on developing characteristic directions such as intelligent computing, intelligent perception and systems, educational artificial intelligence, and "AI + digital economy". It currently has more than 80 faculty members, including 3 doctoral supervisors and more than 40 master's supervisors. In 2024, two professors were short - listed for the list of the world's top 2% top scientists. The computer science discipline currently has 2 national - level talents and 5 provincial - and ministerial - level talents.
Tianjin Normal University claims to be the first school of artificial intelligence among normal universities in the country and one of the top ten universities in the country to establish such a school. It currently has 27 professors and associate professors, 13 national - level and high - level talents in Tianjin, and all full - time teachers have doctoral degrees.
However, compared with top - notch universities such as Tsinghua University and Beihang University, the overall strength of the artificial intelligence teaching staff in normal universities is slightly inferior.
In 2024, Tsinghua University established the School of Artificial Intelligence, with Yao Qizhi, a Turing Award winner and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, serving as the dean. The teaching staff includes many academicians and a large number of high - end AI talents.
The School of Artificial Intelligence at Beihang University shows that it has 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4 national - level leading talents, and 11 national - level young talents.
The direct impact of the weak teaching staff is that the teaching quality of artificial intelligence is difficult to guarantee, and the cultivation of students' practical ability and application ability of cutting - edge technologies is restricted.
An industry insider revealed to Oak Lab that as an emerging field, the knowledge system of artificial intelligence is being updated and iterated at an unprecedented speed.
In contrast, the knowledge structure of many current teachers has significantly lagged behind the industry development, which poses a huge challenge for them to teach artificial - intelligence - related courses.
Lang Lang, the chief leading lecturer of the Intel Artificial Intelligence Project, observed that many existing teachers do not specialize in the field of artificial intelligence, and their understanding of knowledge has not been fully integrated. Teaching still follows the traditional disciplinary barriers: courses such as advanced mathematics, algorithm theory, and programming are taught independently by different teachers, and there is a lack of organic connection between the knowledge, which may lead to students encountering isolated "knowledge islands".
In fact, in order to attract top - notch talents, normal universities have also offered generous conditions. Shaanxi Normal University provides on - campus housing, settling - in allowances, and research start - up funds for overseas outstanding young talents, and assists in solving the employment of their spouses and the enrollment of their children.
In July 2025, Huaibei Normal University publicly recruited high - level talents. The School of Computer Science and Technology plans to recruit 3 doctors majoring in artificial intelligence and computer system architecture, providing settling - in subsidies, research start - up funds, and guarantees for children's enrollment.
However, in contrast, the salary, research funds (such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University providing 2 - 6 million yuan in start - up funds), promotion mechanisms, and supporting policies such as household registration and apartments provided by universities such as Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University are obviously more attractive.
In addition, most normal universities rely on financial allocations, and their self - financing ability is limited.
In 2024, the income of Shaanxi Normal University was about 2.777 billion yuan, of which the financial allocation income was about 1.816 billion yuan, accounting for 65.41%. The total income of Huaibei Normal University in 2024 was about 804 million yuan, of which the financial allocation income was about 418