CHINA

CHINA: Postgraduates lose free tuition

Most Chinese postgraduate students will be forced to pay their own tuition fees at Beijing's top universities from next year, writes Wang Wei for China Daily. The Ministry of Education will cancel government-funded postgraduate programmes at all 36 universities affiliated to ministries in the capital. It said the move is designed to enhance the quality of postgraduate education and encourage competition among students.

The ministry said it had trialled cancelled tuition fees since 2006, and the practice would now be expanded to include all universities supported by the central government across the country. Students with an excellent academic record can receive scholarships that cover tuition fees and also some research, the ministry said in a circular published on its website.

Some graduate students at universities funded by the Beijing municipal government, such as Beijing University of Technology, can continue to enjoy free tuition policy for the time being. Students have been exempt from tuition fees since 1978, when China resumed college education after the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976.
Full report on the China Daily site