Nanjing University of Science and Technology has recently begun offering on-campus services nearly on par with hotels. The free services include wake-up calls, housekeeping and parcel delivery. They have garnered both praise and criticism from national media.
Beijing Youth Daily: We have every reason to believe the university's intentions are good. The university took such actions to free students from mundane trivial matters, allowing them to focus more on academic study.
College students today are asked to pay stunningly high tuition and lodging fees, and therefore, they deserve good on-campus services. Colleges around China have long neglected student complaints about bad or inadequate services. This partly explains many students now choosing to rent off-campus apartments.
The Ministry of Education put a strict ban on college students living off campus this June for the sake of safety concerns.
But the new term proved the ban to be a mere scrap of paper. Many students would rather challenge the ministry's ban at the risk of being punished, than suffer the insufferably bad on-campus services.
The Nanjing university's new move of providing free hotel-standard services to students indicates their initiative and willingness to improve services, illustrating a sharp contrast to many other universities' profit-focused mentality.
Students form the core group of any university, and therefore should be well catered for. A highly qualified on-campus service department is of the same importance as any teaching institution.
No doubt, improved on-campus services at schools will bring more students living off campus back to school dormitories.
It is absurd to blame the Nanjing university for impeding students ability to take care of themselves. Such ability is determined at an earlier stage of life, and will not easily be spoiled in better living conditions or for that matter be improved by worse conditions.
The principal responsibility of colleges is to enrich students minds and cultivate their character. In this regard, the on-campus service department of the Nanjing university is simply performing their rightful duty, and should not be subject to criticism.
People's Daily: Students in the Nanjing university hailed newly launched hotel-standard on-campus services as a great help to their academic life. They said, "Without those trivial things to bother us, we have more time to do more important things."
But we cannot help asking: What is more important than being an independent person?
Universities are not only ivory towers for academic learning, but also mini societies that teach students how to survive and take care of themselves.
In China, overbearing parents constantly keep their children far from daily chores at home. Therefore, universities become the only place for young people to be away from their parents and truly learn to live on their own, before entering society. Hotel-standard on-campus services, though seemingly aimed at making life more comfortable, actually encourage laziness and a dependent mentality among students.
Compared to society, college campuses are fairly carefree, with well-equipped lodgings and study facilities. There is no need to promote hotel-standard services on campus. What lies behind the move is that university officials are not convinced students will be able to look after themselves properly. The college becomes not only a hotel but a kindergarten. As students graduate and are exposed to the real world, who will take the school's role to baby-sit them? No one, but themselves. Therefore, universities should provide students a healthy environment where they can grow to be learned as well as capable in day to day field.
Students are to be taught and nurtured at universities, but never nursed. A student with intelligence but an inability to take care of him or herself is a failure of our college education.
Jiefang Daily: Discussions over the Nanjing university's new move to provide hotel-standard services mostly linger on whether it is right to provide such luxurious services to students. However, the key discussion should focus on how to provide on-campus services for students.
Universities should have a market-oriented and professional on-campus service department. But the Nanjing university goes too far. To provide housekeeping for students is the same as a parent spoiling a child. Such meticulously considerate services are really unnecessary.
On the other hand, many on-campus services that truly matter to the students have been met with much indifference from school authorities. For example, many university dining halls charge high prices for very average meals. Rather than providing lavish services, universities should offer higher quality food and more affordable accommodation.
Plush services do not guarantee success to Chinese students. Universities should become more student-oriented and less market-oriented.
(China Daily October 23, 2004)
