China will hand out twice the number of scholarships and step up financial aid to students as part of a series of policy measures announced by the Ministry of Finance on Saturday, reports Bloomberg. The country will double the annual scholarship quota for undergraduate students to 120,000, that of postgraduates to 70,000, and doctoral students to 20,000, Vice Finance Minister Guo Tingting said at a briefing. The limit on student loans will also be raised.
The measures come as youth unemployment rose in August to the highest level this year. With the economic outlook remaining gloomy, many college students choose to stay in campus for further education. A flurry of Chinese universities are extending the duration of their postgraduate programs in a bid to ease pressure on the labor market.
China will also increase the annual scholarship value to RMB 10,000 ($1,415) per undergraduate student, up from RMB 8,000 currently, Guo said.