Chinese colleges and universities are expanding student enrollment to cultivate talents and popularize higher education. However, the surge of students has raised doubts about the quality of teaching.

Statistics show that freshmen in Chinese higher education institutes numbered 2.7 million in 1999, and four million this year.

The ratio of teachers to students has dropped to 1:15 or even 1:18 compared to 1:8 before the enlargement of students in many universities. "That will undoubtedly result in poor teaching," said Liu Jizhen, president of the North China Electric Power University.

A study from southern China's Guangdong Province shows that universities there need more than 5,000 teachers per year due to the enlargement.

Meanwhile, the undergraduates will face tougher competition from their fellow students in job-hunting after their four-year study.

Pan Yunhe, president of Zhejiang University, said some prestigious universities could raise their proportion of their graduate students while others could increase that of undergraduates in a bid to utilize the limited teaching resources more effectively.

Zhu Chongshi, president of Xiamen University, said school plansto change the ratio between postgraduates and undergraduates from 1:2 to 1:1.5 or even higher in 2011. The proportion of doctorates will also increase.

W. D. Macmillan, executive vice-president of Oxford University,told an ongoing forum between Chinese and foreign university presidents here that Oxford has set out to enlarge its proportion of graduate students and reduce that of undergraduates.

Poon Chung-kwong, president of Hong Kong Polytechnic University,noted China, as a developing country, still needs more talent because there are students with higher education than in the United States and Britain.

According to a study, just 20 percent of Chinese youth aged 18 to 21 are enrolled in college, compared with 50 to 60 percent in the United States and Britain.

Source: Xinhua