It was Qi's fourth time before the door of the "psychology consultation room," but he finally summoned up the courage to knock on it.

"I was always the best in my high school, but here I feel like a small fish in a big pond," Qi tells a middle-aged man, who listens intently.

"It seems everyone can do better than me. I don't have the confidence I used to have and I'm always anxious. And the worst thing is, I don't know why."

This is a common scene for Jin Hongzhang, who listens to three or four students every afternoon.

Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has already recorded the psychological conditions of more than 200,000 students, according to Lu Zhenhuan, vice-director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Education Bureau.

And a further effort to speak to nearly 400,000 students from 59 colleges and universities is under way, which is expected to finish by the end of the year.

Jin, who heads the students' affairs department at Harbin Engineering University and is also an experienced psychology teacher, says such an assessment process is necessary.

The latest generation of college students was born in the 1980s.

"Compared with their parents, they enjoy a much better life. They are usually the only child at home.

"They are without siblings and grow up as the apple in the eye of the family, under the shelter of their father and mother until they had to go to college," Jin tells China Daily.

"Once on the campus and having to face difficulties by themselves, they are suddenly at a loss.

"In other words, they are often not mentally strong enough to cope with the difficulties and they need suggestions or help from others."

But he does not agree with the proposition of some that the current mental condition of contemporary college students has declined to a "worrying" state.

The suicide rate of college students is no higher than several decades ago, and it is also less than the rate for society as a whole, Jin says.

He said it was perhaps the case of Ma Jiajue, a college student in Yunnan University who cruelly killed four of his fellow students last year, that caused a stir throughout the nation and brought the possible mental problems facing some college students to the fore.

(China Daily February 1, 2005)