Chinese Authorities Halt Plans to Build New Universities, Suggesting Population Crisis: Experts

Students walk outside a school after finishing the National College Entrance Examination, known as "gaokao," outside a school in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei Province, on July 8, 2020. STR/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

More than a dozen Chinese provinces recently announced that they have no plans to build new universities. China experts point out that with the decline in the country’s population, particularly a large number of COVID-19 deaths, there is a significant reduction in the college-age population, and universities will have trouble recruiting enough students in the near future.