Osei Boateng, a Ghanaian student at Jiangsu University who is learning Chinese, shows Peking opera masks during a visit to a community theater in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, in March. Shi Yu Cheng / for China Daily

In late April, Li Guo returned to the Chinese capital after a one-year voluntary stint teaching Chinese in Peru.

The 26-year-old master's student at Beijing Language and Culture University will graduate in July.

But Li, who is in her seventh year majoring in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, has yet to find a full-time job.

"None of the girls living on the same dorm floor with me, all majoring in TCSOL, has found a teaching job so far," she said.

"Most of them are signing job contracts that are not closely related to the major."

BLCU was among the first four universities approved by the Ministry of Education in 1985 to offer the TCSOL program, formerly known as the Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language program.

There are 342 universities offering it. By the end of 2012, there were 63,933 students studying the major.

Shi Jiawei, former director of the university's TCSOL department and a professor of the major, said that among graduates with a bachelor's degree in TCSOL in the past three years, less than 10 percent of them have clinched jobs closely related to the major. More than 40 percent of them will continue to study for a master's.

"The major has long been popular among liberal arts students and attracts outstanding candidates," she said. "But we do have problems sending students out for the right jobs, especially undergraduates."

Shi gave two reasons TCSOL students have trouble landing a job after graduation.

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