BEIJING — Over 8.34 million people graduated from Chinese universities in the summer of 2019, compared to 17,000 in 1950, one year after the People’s Republic of China was founded, said a report by the People’s Daily on June 24.

By 2018, more than 45 percent of the newly-added labor forces had a university diploma, and the gross enrollment ratio of higher education, the proportion of students enrolled in universities in the age group, 18-22, stood at 45.7 percent, said the paper.

The year 1999 saw a milestone change in the history of Chinese higher education as universities began to expand enrollment. As a result, the number of enrollment surged by 47.4 percent from 1998.

Compared to their peers 70 years ago, whose jobs were assigned, Chinese graduates now have multiple choices to either pursue further studies, start their own business, or find a career in one of the nation’s many burgeoning industries, said the paper.