For decades, exams have been high on the list, whether it be curriculum or extra curricular of primary and middle school students.

After surviving a decade of hard study and countless exams, they shall face the final hurdle: the national college entrance examination. For many, this exam could be the turning point in their lives.

Unfortunately, many cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is not necessarily that they are not good students more often than not it is because the entrance is too narrow.

With the prospects of failing the final exam looming large at the end of the road, passing exams with high scores has remained the first and foremost priority of most schools, students and teachers.

Consequently, the percentage of students passing the college entrance exam becomes the ultimate tool to measure a student's achievements, a teacher's competence and a school's prestige.

As a result, tapping the students' talent and cultivating their personality have taken a back seat.

This misplaced priority has changed in recent years with the enlargement of college enrollment, which promises to ease and erase the bottleneck that has sabotaged many fledging careers.

This year altogether 1.3 million high school graduates entered colleges, 44 per cent more than last year.

This drastic expansion, though with the blessing of the authorities, is more a response to the growing market demand than a measure to satisfy the need of the State apparatus.

In the planned economy, the number of new college students was fixed by the State according to vacancies in its enterprises and institutions. Every college student was guaranteed a job upon graduation.

However with education reform, nowadays students have to pay higher tuition and find jobs for themselves.

Increasingly, a college education is seen as an individual investment for a brighter future. Consequently, the country's institutions of higher learning will have to answer to the market instead of listening to orders from the State.

In a sense, the reform in college enrollment not only tests the students' academic achievements but also the colleges' adaptability to changes.

So far China's response to the increasing demand for higher education has been quite positive. With the enlarged enrollment, more peoples' wishes for a higher education have been satisfied.

In an experimental move starting from this year, the central authorities have granted 78 key universities a special right: 2 per cent of their newly enrolled students may have their entrance examination scores lower than the official admission minimum. These students will also have to pay higher tuition.

Hopefully, in the future anyone who wishes to attend and can afford college will be able to do so. Such a development is pragmatic. There is nothing wrong with wishing to attend college. In a sense, anyone who can pay for their college education is a good customer.

Confronted with this new reality, it will no longer be a wise choice to turn down those students who can afford a college education but find the entrance too narrow.

Nowadays high school graduates have a much wider spectrum of choices. It is reported by China Reform News that in Guangdong Province alone parents spent more than 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) annually sponsoring their children's overseas study.

But the success of the ongoing college reform will largely be decided by the quality of the education itself. The universities have to ensure that their schools are marketable, which is of imminent significance for two reasons.

First, though college students are still relatively rare in China, already some college students have difficulty in finding jobs.

The prospects will by no means be improved in the near future as China will continue in the next few years streamlining the central and provincial government departments and institutions.

This year many college graduates are urged to go to work in grass-roots institutions, such as townships and villages, where few want to go.

Two factors will be of utmost significance to ensure the quality of college graduates: the competency of the teachers and marketability of curriculum.

It seems that nowadays universities are at a disadvantage to attract the brightest people for teaching positions.

It is no secret that normal universities are quite often among the last choices for high school students.

It is reported by China Youth magazine that each year 10 per cent of the country's key university teachers leave for other institutions.

The meagre salary is the major cause behind the brain drain. Now the monthly pay of mainland university professors account for only 1 per cent of their Hong Kong counterparts.

Last year some employers offered an annual starting income package as high as 130,000 yuan (US$15,000) to hire graduates in Chengdu University of Electronic Technology.

Swayed by such generous pay, few teachers want to stay. Certainly the faculty will have a big impact upon college competency.

Another factor affecting the college education quality is the marketability of majors. In this year, more than 500 high school graduates from Beijing forsook the chance to attend college because they did not like the majors offered, reported China Youth Daily.

The college reform cannot be conducted in isolation. It must be carried in conjunction with other reform programmes.