Industry salary signals and adjustments in college entrance examination admission scores for majors: evidence from China’s Double First-Class universities

The choice of a major in higher education is closely associated with the sector of activity of future employment. As a labour price signal, the industry salary level is transmitted to candidates through the labour market and affects their choice of major. Drawing on panel data matching college entrance examination admission scores of majors with industry salary levels from 147 Chinese ‘Double First-Class’ universities during 2019–2023, this study employs fixed-effects panel regression models to explore the mechanism underlying the effect of industry salary levels on college entrance examination admission scores for corresponding majors. The findings indicate that rising industry salary levels significantly increase the college entrance examination admission scores of relevant majors, and that the rising popularity of majors and the improvement in teaching quality are important factors contributing to these higher admission scores. More importantly, the increasing salary levels of upstream industries also contribute to higher college entrance examination admission scores for majors related to the target industry. From the perspective of salary signals, this article provides empirical evidence regarding the major choices of college entrance examination candidates, the structure of university majors, and the improvement of the talent supply–demand matching mechanism.