"A university can also be viewed as a small society, Currently, the number of administrative personnel in China's institutions of higher learning is much more than that of their teachers and scholars." (File Photo)   Chinanews, Chongqing, Sept. 24 – "When my daughter studied in Tsinghua University, she was asked to pay only several yuan every year for her yearly tuition. While now colleges and universities charge thousands of yuan, rising close to 20 times in 15 years," said Xia Jianbai, an academician from Chinese Academy of Sciences in Chongqing on Sept. 21, 2006. He believes college tuition is too high for students, especially for those who come from rural areas.

 

"I think excessive charges of college tuition are the main problem of the current education mechanism," said Xia bluntly. "In addition to expensive tuition fee, students also have to pay for their accommodation and textbooks," he said, "Even ordinary families living in urban areas feel it difficult to bear such a heavy economic burden."

 

Since 1994, the national income per capita has increased by only 400%, far lagging behind the increase of college tuition.

 

Xia suggests that the central government should regulate the college tuition-charging standard. College tuition should be charged based on the running cost of colleges and universities. Each student can be charged 3,500 yuan ($442) annually, he says.

 

"A university can also be viewed as a small society, Currently, the number of administrative personnel in China's institutions of higher learning is much more than that of their teachers and scholars, " he said. Xia believes those administrative personnel can be reduced to save the running costs.