Why are Chinese students giving up on architecture?

I recently convened an urban studies summer school in a top university in Shanghai and asked the assembled class of architectural master’s students: ‘Who wants to be an architect?’ Not one hand was raised.

This was not the typical reticence of Chinese youngsters; this was a class of architectural students who have given up on architecture. They are all hoping to escape architectural education, so that they might progress to classes in AI, digital transformation or some other hi-tech sector where they believe jobs exist. For them, architecture is a dead end.

As my Chinese students are discovering, there are too few jobs in the sector, the pay is low and the work is unappealing. Notwithstanding the Norman Fosters and Zaha Hadids of this world, the same is largely true in the West, where the average salary for a five-year qualified architect in London is £45,000. But architecture retains its appeal in the West, in part because it is seen as a high-status profession, not a job.

Architecture only emerged in China as a viable independent profession 25 years ago. As the country modernised, students had more freedom to choose creative degrees. Architecture was seen to be an easy-going, inspiring career. It was also an escape route from rote learning and the promise of a laborious desk job.

But now, in China’s tightening jobs market, thousands of arts graduates are competing for each role. Internships are often unpaid, while junior architects earn as little as £400 per month. The nine-nine-six working week of old (working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week) is back. Chinese architecture students seem desperate to avoid it.

Many still hope to reach a well-paid job, of course, consistent with their status and years of studying.