A Lottery Is Deciding What These Chinese University Students Will Study

Life can often be a lottery - but it’s especially so for students at this Chinese university.

That’s because their degree majors are being assigned to them via a raffle.

Engineering students entering their second year at University of South China, Hunan Province, are being allocated one of seven subjects they have to specialise in.

And it’s all completely random as to what they’ll end up with.

University bosses have come under fire for implementing the system.

But they’ve fired back - saying they were “forced” to take the measures because some courses were just so much more popular than others.

“If choosing a major is solely based on students’ wants, some majors will be overcrowded and others will have difficulty enrolling enough students,” said spokesman Lu Qinghua.

The system isn’t as dictatorial as it first appears, however.

The 190 students with the highest results in the previous year can choose their specialism themselves.

Others who fail to make the top grade can also switch with each other, just as long as the courses all have the same number of students enrolled.

And those who finish in the top 10 per cent at the end of the second year can also later switch their course, reports the BBC.

The specialist subjects are also, obviously, connected to their passion of civil engineering.

University bosses, who said they consulted staff and students on the lotto system, have received a mixed response from social media users.

“This will offer no solution to the problem, only complaints about what others are studying!” one man wrote on Sina Weibo.

But another added: “In theory, students want to choose their own major, but school resources are limited.”

(Stock image credited to REX)