At a March 6 panel discussion during the Two Sessions - meetings of China's lawmakers - currently being held in Beijing, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top advisory body, argued that perhaps college fees should be increased.
Meng Anming, a Tsinghua University professor, explained that college tuition fees are lower than that of many kindergartens and there are limits to national funding, reported the
Beijing Youth Daily.
Meng said the country has invested too much in higher education, and as costs have increased in general, so have the operating costs of a college, but tuition fees have remained static.
In a piece in news portal The Paper, commentator Wen Xuanjun refuted Meng’s argument. He said that China does not spend too much on higher education, citing a paper published by the magazine China Higher Education Research. According to the paper, the majority of countries invest around 1-2 percent of GDP for public higher education, while that in China is between 0.7-0.9 percent.
Although the country has many sectors that require State funding, the input to higher education should not be reduced. Besides, increasing tuition fees might deter many poverty-stricken students from attending college. The current grant-in-aid and student loan policies are far from enough to encourage poor students to attend further education institutions, Wen said.
Old Version
