China’s First Marriage-Focused University Degree Includes Matchmaking and Pre-Divorce Counseling Courses

China is launching its first university degree program focused on marriage services, encompassing wedding planning, matchmaking, and marriage counseling. The Beijing-based Vocational University of Civil Affairs will offer a four-year program in marriage services and management, teaching students to engage with the “entire cycle of marriage and family,” according to Yu Xiaohui, dean of the university’s School of Wedding Culture and Media Arts.

The program covers various aspects, from matchmaking and premarital counseling to wedding services and divorce counseling. Yu noted a growing demand for trained professionals in the marriage services market. The curriculum includes subjects like sociology, wedding venue design, family ethics, the economics of the marriage industry, and family policies. Students will also have internship opportunities with agencies specializing in weddings, matchmaking, marriage registration, and counseling.

Starting in September, the program will enroll 70 undergraduates from 12 provinces. In 2024, new marriages in China increased by 12.4%, reversing a nine-year decline, although more than half of the population aged 25 to 29 remains unmarried, with late marriages becoming more common.

The Vocational University of Civil Affairs, under China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, also offers degrees in smart health-care management, social work, rehabilitation assistive device technology, and funeral management. The Modern Funeral Management curriculum, the country’s first undergraduate major in this field, includes training in body embalming, preservation, palliative care, grief consolation, body cremation, and funeral equipment maintenance.

China’s rapidly aging population, due to longer life expectancy and a low fertility rate, has led to a decline in births despite government efforts to encourage larger families. The country’s population decreased by more than 2 million people to 1.41 billion in 2023.