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Campus Life to Improve
More than 3.88 million hopefuls throughout China will compete in the national college entrance exams beginning Friday.
For those would-be college students the issues that will give them the most concern after the three-day exams will be the environment on campus and tuition fees.
Life on campus is set to improve for students.
Universities and colleges are looking for funding from businesses to help build such things as accommodation blocks and dining halls, sources from the Ministry of Education said.
Projects aimed at improving campus life will be given preferential access to land and loans, and will be given tax breaks, according to the ministry's regulations.
China began to expand college enrollment last year, in an attempt to give school leavers more of an opportunity to go on to higher education, which will help increase China's level of economic development, according to the ministry.
To ensure that enrollment does increase as planned, the ministry has been encouraging colleges and universities to rent adjacent buildings to supplement their classrooms, dining halls, dormitories and laboratories.
The ministry has also called on governments at all levels to increase the funds available for higher education.
China has 1,021 regular colleges and universities, and over 3 million students.
Fifteen per cent of the population will be given the opportunity to receive higher education by the year 2010, compared to only 9 per cent at present.
Higher education is non-compulsory in China. It is therefore reasonable that colleges and universities collect tuition fees from their students to help supplement the funds that are already available to them.
Tuition fees, which may vary regionally due to economic disparities and differing levels of local governmental investment in education, must be set within a range that ordinary students can afford, Vice-Minister of Education Zhang Baoqing said.
The Ministry of Supervision and the State Administration of Taxation will regularly send staff to higher learning institutions to avoid random fee collections, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education.
Due to regional economic disparities, some students, especially those from underdeveloped areas, find it difficult to pay their tuition fees.
Since 1987, the ministries of education and finance have taken a series of measures to help poor students finish their studies, such as reducing the fees they have to pay and offering subsidies or scholarships.
To further assist cash-strapped students, the State began to officially introduce student loans last year in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Wuhan, Shenyang, Xi'an, and Nanjing, which have more colleges and universities than other cities.
It is expected that these measures will be introduced into other regions within the next few years to help poor students complete their higher learning careers, according to Shang Fulin, deputy governor-general of the People's Bank of China, China's central bank.
Utilizing the banking sector to finance educational institutions is a significant step that will help propel the country's educational reforms and raise the level of development, said Shang.
Students can apply for loans from branches of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China from September 1 every year.
Students are required to repay their loans with interest within four years after graduation, but poor students may get a 50 per cent discount on interest repayments and the State will pay the remainder, said Shang.
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