Flexible financial aid to incite students to study

A student prepares for the entrance examination for postgraduate students at Shandong Jianzhu University in Jinan, Shandong province, in December. [Zheng Tao / for China Daily]

The country will offer more flexible choices for student financial aid when it begins to charge tuition fees for all its postgraduate students beginning in the 2014 fall semester.

Experts said that will encourage students to focus more on studies and research.

The government will offer a national postgraduate scholarship, benefiting 45,000 postgraduate students every year. Starting in the 2014 fall semester, every master's student will receive no less than 6,000 yuan ($962) and doctorate students will receive more than 10,000 yuan each year as a postgraduate scholarship.

It added that the country will increase subsidies for student teaching and research assistants and improve other financial aid policies, including student loans.

Universities across the country enrolled nearly 585,000 postgraduate students last year, 30 percent more than in 2007.

"It doesn't mean that the country will cut the funding for postgraduate students. Instead, the government will invest much more to provide all kinds of financial aid," said Yuan Zhenguo, chair of the National Education Advisory Committee and president of the National Institute of Education Sciences, adding that it is an encouragement system to urge postgraduate students to work hard.

Universities have had government-funded and self-funded postgraduate students since the end of 1990. Before that, all postgraduate students received full funding and tuition waivers from the government.

These government-funded students enjoy a tuition waiver and receive a living stipend from the government regardless of the progress of their research.

Under the system, some students never study when they gain entry to graduate schools. They don't need to pay tuition and will get a "salary" every month just sitting there. Other students study hard and publish works. But they receive the same as their do-nothing peers.

"It is unfair," Yuan said, adding that the new system will offer more scholarships to hard-working students, "three to five times more than before".

"The total government investment will increase," he said, adding that the detailed plan for scholarship distribution based on students' achievement will be offered soon by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education.

A few universities, such as Peking, Tsinghua and Renmin University of China, started trials and since 2006 have begun to cancel tuition fees for all and to provide scholarships to postgraduate students.

Wang Dong, 27, a second-year doctoral student at Fudan University in Shanghai, acknowledged the new plan.

He is a government-funded PhD student and enjoys the tuition waiver. He receives a 1,000 yuan living stipend from the government every month.

"Everyone receives the living stipend whether they are self-funded or government-funded," he said, adding that some students receive extra scholarships, ranging from 5,000 to 8,000 yuan annually, from the government based on their research.

He agrees with Yuan that the new system will encourage students to learn.

"Some masters candidates, even PhD candidates, pay little attention to their studies. Their degrees are not valuable. If they pay, they may be a little more careful about their studies," he added.

But Wang said the new tuition standard is expensive.

The statement said masters' tuition fees are no more than 8,000 yuan, and those for doctorates are no more than 10,000 yuan each year.

Sun Banghua, professor at Beijing Normal University, echoed that it will be an encouragement system.

"Excellent students will receive more rewards," he said.

Cao Yin and Zhao Yinan contributed to this story.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn