Some 2.4 million students in Chinese universities and colleges
are facing financial difficulties, accounting for 20 percent of the
total enrollment, Vice Minister of Education Zhang Baoqing said in
Beijing Tuesday.
Among them, 1.6 million are facing severe financial
difficulties, 5-10 percent of the total students enrolled, Zhang
said at a press conference held by the Information Office of the
State Council.
At the end of 2003, he said, some 18 million students were
receiving higher education, about 12 million at full-time state-run
colleges and universities.
With the rapid development of higher education, Chinese
universities and colleges are all open to the public. However,
Zhang said, the number of college students with financial
difficulties also grows rapidly.
According to the vice minister, the complicated reasons can be
highlighted as the general low income of the Chinese people as a
whole, the high rate of university students from rural areas and
the high tuition that has been levied over the last few years.
Statistics show that half of the university students in China
are from rural areas, with some from poverty-stricken areas.
Zhang said that the government pays great attention to poor
students and has worked out a series of policies to help them. They
can get scholarships, student loans, remission of tuition fees and
part-time jobs to subsidize their campus life.
Under the National Facilitating Student Loan Program initiated
in 1999, more than 800,000 needy students have received state
education loans worth 5.2 billion yuan (US$630 million).
But he acknowledged that some localities and universities did
not fully implement the state policies supporting those needy
students.
(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2004)