Zhang Yan had arrived in Shanghai for the first time to begin life as a university student and was looking around at what was to be her new home for the next few years. "What a big city," Zhang said excitedly.

Zhang's mother was helping her clean the new dormitory and Zhang's father was carrying her luggage to the sixth floor where Zhang was to live with five other girls.

Zhang was the only child of her parents. "In today's competitive society, my daughter has the chance to study at university, I feel very proud," Zhang's mother said. But when Zhang stepped out of the dormitory, her mother said: "Her father and I are workers. When our daughter received the entrance notification from Donghua University, we felt under some pressure." The notification told the working-class couple that they would have to pay 12,400 yuan (US$1,499) for their daughter's first year at university.

Zhang's parents only earned 1,600 yuan (US$193) a month. "I would rather borrow money from friends or relatives to support my daughter's study, I can't bear to let her apply for a national supporting loan," Zhang's mother said. "My daughter is a sensitive girl and she would feel she was under heavy pressure if she knew she has to study on a loan."

Old ideas

Zhang's mother reflects the thoughts of many Chinese parents. "This fear of debts still betrays, to some extent, the underdeveloped attitudes of ordinary Chinese towards funding education," said Zhang Zhenzhu, a researcher from the Shanghai Institute of Educational Science.

Professor Tang Anguo from the Higher Education Institute of East China Normal University said today's high tuition fees were a real burden to many poorer families but this should not be a problem. "Parents should consider how to plan and use their money. They should have a vision of their children's future education," Tang said.

Tang used to argue with poorer students about the high tuition cost. "Those were very poor students. They did not have any money to pay for their tuition, not even for the transportation cost to get to the university," he recalled.

In response, the students asked whether the nation should bear the whole cost of tuition fees. Tang said that if they all chose to return to the economically deprived areas they had come from, and stayed to work there after graduation, "sure, our nation should solve all of their financial problems, but the point is, most students don't choose to return to their hometowns - they stay in cities and find jobs."

Tang held that those who will benefit the most from higher education should pay the most. The government can't always provide free financial aid to all poor students.

Higher education is not compulsory so tuition fees should be shared by parents, government and society. "It's a problem of apportioning the cost of higher education among the nation, society and individuals," Tang said.

Finding ways

In the planned economy era, college students did not have to worry about their tuition, because the government bore most of the cost. Now with the growth of educational costs, including teachers' salaries, equipment and campus construction, the average cost of training a college student has reached 15,000 yuan (US$1,814) according to statistics from the Education Department.

In theory, tuition fees today do not cover the basic educational cost of each college student. "But increasing tuition fees is not an endless process - when the fee finally gets close to the basic educational cost, it will stop increasing," Tang said.

Another problem existing in the field of China's higher education is the financial structure. In foreign countries, non-governmental financial support for education is much higher than is the case in China. For instance, in Japan, non-governmental finance for education accounts for 58 per cent, in South Korea 80 per cent and in the US 50 per cent. However, in China, it only makes up 30 per cent, of which tuition fees take up 24 per cent. "The methods of socially financing education are not straightforward," Zhang said.

Zhang believed that government has its own difficulties and it has done its best to increase expenditure on education, from 3.4 per cent of GDP to 4.83 per cent over the past six years. However, this increase remains insufficient because demand for higher education is growing and ever more students are applying for it. "Diversifying the sources of educational finance has become a necessity," Tang said.

Zhong Lixin, vice director of the Publicity Department of East China Normal University said: "In China, no student is denied registration on their first day simply because of poverty." Once these students arrive at universities, they have been offered chances to apply for national supporting loans or delaying their date of payment for tuition fees. "Most poor students can be granted loans. Even if they can't get loans, we still provide other ways to support them to finish their study," Zhong said.

"As universities, we need to find different ways to solve financial problems, since not all universities can get enough financial support from government, especially ordinary universities."

Professor Tang suggested that enterprises, individuals and government should encourage students by establishing educational scholarships. And students can't always depend on government or society, they also needed to take more responsibilities for their own futures. "We should also call for the setting up of foundations to provide urgent help to poor students, for instance, those who have no money at all when they receive their entrance notices."

China is a populous country and it has not been easy to develop an education system because economic development is still comparatively low.

High tuition fees reflect that the whole of society is going through a period of transition. "Encouraging students to get loans in a competitive way and cultivating their sense of social responsibility are already goals for universities," Zhang said. "The whole of society should be motivated to develop education."

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