Do students have the right to get married whilst still at college?
Is it a good or bad idea to permit them to get married at this
stage?
Much debate on this issue has been the talk of the town on college
campuses. The result? Colleges can make their own decision on
whether to give the green light to student couples who want to
marry, according to Qu Zhenyuan, an official from the Ministry of
Education.
In
the past and even in some cases now, college students are forbidden
from getting married. The legal age at which students can tie the
knot is 22 for men and 20 for women. However, undergraduates who
decide to get married must quit from their colleges before doing
so.
Undeniable rights
The current management provision was issued in 1990 by the then
State Education Commission and has been strictly carried out by all
Chinese colleges.
College students are told on their first day that marriage is
utterly prohibited, although few had thought about it before
anyway.
However, when the Ministry of Education dropped the limit of age
and marital status for students to sit college entrance
examination, problems appeared - if grandparents and parents could
study in college, then why couldn't college students get
married?
Legal professionals complain that the current rule takes away the
right to marry at the legal age, which must be protected.
They argue that the 1980 Marriage Law and its newly-passed revision
stipulates that no organization or individual is allowed to
interfere in people's right to marry.
"College students of legal marriageable age have the right to take
their college to court if their legal rights are inappropriately
forbidden," said He Weifang, professor at the Law School of Peking
University. "The colleges will undoubtedly be the losers," he said,
adding that "citizens' rights cannot be denied and that there are
no exceptions for college students."
Disturbance on campus?
Legal rights cannot be denied but potential problems cannot be
ignored, either.
Yang Deguang, principal of Shanghai Normal
University, argued the current management rule enacted in
colleges does not really conflict with the rights of students.
Although some university students are old enough to request a
marriage application, most of them are unprepared psychologically
and are not secure enough financially to begin a family, Yang
believes.
"Marriage and childbearing are distractions and disturb the normal
order of school," said Tian Lin, professor at the research centre
of higher education at Peking University.
"Nowadays colleges are totally unprepared for managing a large
number of student's families."
Until now, Wuhan University
has been the only one that publicly approves marriage on
campus.
Hao Xiang, who is in charge of students' affairs at Wuhan
University, said the rules were changed because the limit of age
and marriage status for people studying at college were
dropped.
"If more and more single, older people enter our school, problems
will begin sooner or later," he said. "We have to make our rules
fit the coming new situations."
"But this does not mean that we are encouraging our students to get
married," Hao added.
He
said only 5 per cent of graduate students in the university have
got married and most younger undergraduates have their own rational
considerations which will not be influenced by the new rule.
Most universities stick to their traditional rules - no marriage on
campus.
"We do not encourage undergraduates to get married at any time,"
said Sun Li, president of the students' management department at
Peking University.
"Marriage is too big a decision," she said. "No application from
undergraduates students have been turned in yet. I believe the
majority of students would not risk it without careful thought,"
she added.
Parents worried
Perhaps the most worried people involved in the debate are parents
who have placed great hopes on their children's future.
Fang Guoqing, a father of a college student, firmly supports the
schools' restriction.
He
believes that college is a place only for study, and that "the
prime responsibility for school is to encourage students to
study."
"I
cannot imagine how my son would concentrate on his studies if he
has a wife and a family at such a young age," Fang added.
Zhang Shuyan, a mother of a college student hopes her daughter and
other students can all treasure the precious time in college and
use the time to absorb as much knowledge as they can when they are
still young.
"I
do not deny that marriage is their right," she said. "But if they
ask me, I will persuade them to wait. I believe that more sweet
fruits await them in the future."
Many parents are also worried that getting married at such a young
age could lead to many more divorces.
Students remain sane
Most college and university students responded calmly to the debate
on marriage.
Guo Tong from the Guanghua School of Management of Peking
University, said students' rights with regards to marriage should
be protected in line with the law, but he is not considering
marriage himself whilst at college, largely because of the pressure
from his studies and his worries about finding a job after
graduation.
"I
could not risk my girlfriend's future if my own future remains
uncertain," he said.
A
survey conducted in Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei
Province where Wuhan University is based, revealed that half of the
city's college students would prefer to wait for at least five
years after graduation; less than one-third of students questioned
said they would marry within three to five years after leaving
college. Most of them do not want to sacrifice what they consider
to be a golden time for gaining knowledge.
"There have been no students at my university applying to get
married, although 40 per cent of the students are old enough to be
eligible," said Jia Shuiku, director of the Students' Affairs
Office at the University of Science and Technology of Beijing.
Zhu Xiao, a student at the University of International Business and
Economics has been dating his girlfriend for two years and they
have touched on the topic of marriage. "We won't get married until
after graduation," Zhu said. "If we want to have a happy life in
the future, we need to study hard together."
The debate on the rights of college students to get married is just
one problem that China has to face in its gradual reform of higher
education, said Tian Lin, professor from Peking University.
It
appears that even if restrictions on marriage at school were
abandoned, it is unlikely that marriages on campus would increase.
But we still need to prepare for potential problems, she said.
(China
Daily January 9, 2002)