[photopress:liaochenguniversity.jpg,full,alignright]China’s educational authorities are trying to curb random increases in fee charges made by some universities. The Ministry of Education will re-examine tuition standards based on costs. This has sparked much media debate including the following excerpts:
Beijing News: It is hard to curb random fee charges by only examining the operational costs of universities. According to the authorities, there should only be charges for two higher education expenses, namely tuition and boarding fees. The boarding fee is around RMB800 to 1,200 ($100-148) per student per school year, while tuition is decided by the operational costs of each school. Since the year 2000, the tuition level has been kept at about 25% of the routine operating cost per student.
Daily Sunshine: Operational costs of universities should be decided according to our national income level. The operational costs of schools are not always reasonable. For example, it is reported that Renmin University of China spent more than RMB1 million ($128,057) to install a sightseeing lift and glass curtain in a three-story dining building, Liaocheng University spent more than RMB3 million ($384,172) to build its gate. If all these were included as operational costs of higher education, the costs would be very high.
Oriental Morning Post: It is an indisputable fact that charges for higher education are a bit too high today. Middle and low-income families are facing difficulties in affording their children’s schooling. . . .
Public schools should open their gates to students from low-income families. There should be subsidies and expense standards for them, while rich families can choose expensive and good private schools.
Source: China Daily
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