The education of high-level science popularization professionals serves as the basis for how society embraces science and technologies. Our study aims to empirically present the challenges confronted with the master programs in science popularization in China. We theoretically framed the interaction mechanism between science education and science popularization professionals, and then surveyed the 2013—2019 entering cohorts in five pilot universities. Based on the descriptive statistics, this paper proposes several measures to improve the situation and to guarantee the quality of high-level talents in science popularization. First, science education should be distinguished from science popularization with varied curriculum systems. The direction of science education can be generated in the education or social-science-related departments, which nurtures science teachers for primary and secondary schools; the programs of science popularization, on the other hand, can be developed in colleges or departments of science and engineering, endeavoring to cultivate professionals who distill technical information of a certain field into understandable messages for public consumption. Second, the application-oriented principle should be emphasized in either the curriculum design or the graduation thesis. Third, the departments concerning science popularization may seek collaboration with colleges and universities to build featured scientific centers, which can not only provide students with more internship opportunities, but also make it possible for institutions to publicize their advanced researches.