The Price of Education

It’s a tough life for poor students when they reach college, but the system is
changing to see they get enough funding to make it through

By LU LING

MAKING A PLAN: Cash-strapped students restock a supermarket at Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in a bid to earn extra cash

After paying the tuition fee for her son’s last term at college, a relieved Gao Hong said she could take time out to relax after four years of coming up with tuition payments.

Gao’s son is studying at a college in Beijing. Originally a worker, she applied for early retirement after it emerged that the company she worked for was in financial difficulties. Her pension payments amounted to a meager 700 yuan ($84.54) a month. Gao’s husband is a worker at the Astronautics Ministry, bringing home 1,400 yuan ($169) a month. Last year, the average monthly income of Beijing residents was 1,400 yuan ($169) per person. The couple’s income belongs to a low standard. Under such conditions, it has been a strain for the couple to put their son through college.

Burden for Family

Since the 1980s, the tuition fee of Chinese colleges and universities has soared. According to education data, the annual tuition fee of most colleges and universities was only about 200 yuan ($24.15) in 1989, while it is between 3,000 yuan ($362.32) and 8,000 yuan ($966.18) at present, with that of some key universities exceeding 10,000 yuan ($1,207.73). The tuition fee of colleges and universities has increased 15 to 50 times that of 1989, while the per-capita annual income of residents has only doubled.

When their child was at middle school, Gao Hong and her husband had begun to save money for his studying at college. Gao said if they had not prepared in advance, their life would have been much harder when their son began college.

According to Gao, during the four years of her son’s college life, they spent over 40,000 yuan ($4,830.92), nearly half of their incomes in the four years.

Gao said based on the family’s salary income she could afford the tuition fee of 5,000 yuan ($603.86) per term by leading a frugal life, but had the tuition fee increased, she would have been unable to afford it.

Yet there were others worse off than her. She spoke of families who had spent more than their 10-year earnings to put their children through college, and survived only by borrowing money.

According to an investigation called “How Much to Spend Attending Colleges,” taken by China Youth Daily, 25 percent of respondents can afford 10,000 yuan ($1,207.73) a year to support a college student, while 28 percent said they can afford 7,000 to 10,000 yuan ($845.41~$1,207.73) a year. A quarter had the necessary 5,000 to 7,000 yuan ($603.86~$845.41) and 22 percent could not see their way clear to pay 5,000 yuan ($603.86). The data collected is a clear illustration that if the expense of supporting a college student surpasses 10,000 yuan ($1,207.73), 75 percent of families cannot afford it.

In fact, many families fell outside the parameters of this investigation, so that the actual result might paint an even more disturbing picture.

Poverty-Stricken Students

Cheng Meng is a student at a foreign language college in Beijing. He entered the college in 2001. At the start of his fourth year, his main concern was whether he could get an education loan this year. He said he could not feel relaxed until he knew the outcome of his application.

Cheng comes from a small village in Guizhou Province, southwest China. His parents are both farmers with a monthly income of less than 300 yuan ($36.23). Cheng had to apply for an education loan to pay his tuition fee and living expenses. Without an education loan, he could not complete his studies.

TUTORING TIME: Wang Yuling (left), a student at Jilin University, coaches a middle school student learning English

Cheng said the loan amount granted each year is 6,000 yuan ($724.64). After paying 5,000 yuan ($603.86) in tuition fees and 650 yuan ($78.5) for accommodation, he was left with 350 yuan ($42.27) for the year.

Cheng was determined not to burden his family with requests for money and took part-time jobs wherever he could find them, working either as a part-time tutor or doing translating work during holidays. In this way he managed to earn an extra 500 yuan ($60.39) a month.

“Working part-time, I can earn enough for my living expenses. I don’t mind working hard,” said Cheng.

When asked if part-time work affected his studies, he replied, “There is no doubt that it will. However, during college, class is only a part of college life. Activities out of class, such as part-time jobs, are also good chances to understand society and to improve students’ comprehensive capabilities and working experience.”

In colleges and universities, there are many financially strapped students like Cheng who pour in from the countryside. Sun Meili, official of the New Great Wall Project taken by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, said the proportion of needy students in colleges and universities across the country is about 20 percent. They generally have a monthly maintenance fee of under 150 yuan ($18.12).

According to sources from the Ministry of Finance, China established a new system to offer financial support to poverty-stricken students in colleges and universities around the country in 2004. Under this system, provisions were made for 800,000 students to benefit from 4.33 billion yuan ($522.95 million) worth of education loans.

Besides, according to requirements of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance, colleges and universities must make provisions for 10 percent of their tuition fees collected every year to assist poor students in different ways.

From September 2004, some poverty-stricken students in whole-day colleges and universities could receive 4 yuan ($0.48) each in food allowances per day. The total amount of this subsidy is 700 million yuan ($84.54 million), and, as it was tentatively set, it will last one year.

Zheng Jun, teacher at the English Faculty of China Foreign Affairs University, said his university provided all kinds of chances for students to take part in part-time work. For example, the university arranged for poor students to work in the library, where they could earn 100 yuan ($12.08) a month. In addition, these students could act as volunteers in some foreign affairs activities. As some students also earn money from family tutoring, even those with very little money could earn enough to take care of their basic needs.

High Tertiary Fees

In recent years, more and more people have begun to question the “high and unreasonable” tuition fees for tertiary education. The funding of Chinese public colleges and universities mainly consists of government allocations (including those for various undertakings, scientific research and other expenses), tuition fees from students, incomes from businesses run by colleges and universities, and private donations.

According to government regulations, the proportion of tuition fees in daily running costs should not exceed 25 percent. The problem at present is how to calculate that percentage.

Zhu Xincheng, doctor at Sun Yat-Sen University, thought that some parts of expenditure in education outlay did not belong to education costs, yet were still included. Such kind of expenditures include the large amount on logistics and on part of scientific research projects.

At present, public colleges and universities often calculate their own costs, before submitting them to the examination and approval of departments in charge of education, price and finance.

“When Chinese colleges and universities make standards for their tuition fees, there lacks of transparency. This is also one of the reasons causing dissatisfaction and disagreement from the public,” said Chen Ruping, doctor at China National Institute for Educational Research. He said that educational departments should set up a feasible system to manage the tuition standard of colleges and universities.

Besides, the public criticized government investments, complaining they were not enough. According to the Ministry of Education, the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Finance, the total input for education from the government was 620.83 billion yuan ($74.98 billion) in 2003, increasing 13.29 percent over 2002. However, at the same time, the proportion of education expenditure in total financial expenditure and that of state financial education input in GDP both decreased by 0.08 percentage points and 0.04 percentage points respectively.

Some people in educational circles thought that government funds and private donations are biased toward well-known universities. Colleges and universities that have received less funding and donations had to charge more tuition fees to make up their shortfall in outlay.

Referring to problems in charging fees by colleges and universities, Wang Xuan, member of the Qinghai Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, proposed some suggestions during the conference’s recent session. He suggested building a system to severely control tuition standards of colleges and universities and improving financial input in education. He called on the government to strengthen its macro-regulation for tuition standards of colleges and universities. Besides, he also suggested colleges and universities slow their steps of recruiting more and more students and put more strength on developing high and medium-level vocational and technical education.

Zhang Baoqing, Vice Minister of Education, promised that the soaring tuition fees of colleges and universities will be checked.

Increase of Tuition Fees of Chinese Colleges and Universities

Source: The 21st Century Business Herald