Now she is ready to graduate from Zhejiang University's grad programme, but she has found, unfortunately, that a master's degree is not necessarily the "door-opener" she though it was.

"The job market is changing. I waited for hours in a 500-metre-long line at a Beijing job market two months ago and ended up with nothing, no job," Liang said.

One university in Beijing did offer her a teaching post but she thought the 1,500 yuan (US$181.229) monthly salary did not match her degree.

"I've studied for three more years and should earn more," she explains.

Other grads can have similar expectations. They are looking for a decent job in a big city with good rewards.

According to a survey of the Class of 2003 in Jiangsu Province, near 60 per cent of the graduate students want an average monthly salary above 3,000 yuan (US$362.459) in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, or some other big city.

However, Ji Shunxiang, the director of the Nanjing Human Resources Market, points out that, "That's much higher than the actual average pay of 2,400 for grad students."

To make matters worse, this year the labour situation is clearly the toughest it has been in years. Over 2 million college students will graduate in 2003, or 35 per cent more than in 2002. And, undergraduates have the toughest time finding a job. Then there are those from last year who still have not found jobs. Some put their unemployment rate at around 30 per cent in 2002.

Although some graduate students may have difficulty in finding a job, the majority of them can still find one by lowering their expectations and facing up to reality.

After all, more than 90 per cent of the grad students completing their study last year at colleges and universities in Beijing found jobs, according to the Beijing Education Commission.

As of 2002, the employment rate for 1,100 grad students at Renmin University of China has been 96 per cent, according to Fan Ding, director of the school's Employment Service Centre.

Fan thinks that grad students do not need to worry about jobs and that it is incorrect to say that this is a "cold winter" for job seekers.

"Grad students could easily find a job if they would just stop being so impractical and would lower expectations," he said, sounding a bit exasperated. Fan said the job situation for grad students in big cities is approaching saturation.

"In provincial-level or smaller cities, however, the demand is still there. It'd be a good idea to go looking for a career out there," Fan said sagely.

China began increasing grad school enrollments after 1998, when there were 195,000 grad students; 45,000 were PhD candidates. The figures have gone to 490,000 and 120,000 by now.

China plans to have 270,000 grad students in 2003.

Some people are worried that the increase in numbers could mean the same tough job situation for them in future that undergrads face now. But, Li Guozhong, the head of Peking University's Employment Service Centre, scoffs at this.

"Compared with developed countries, the number of graduate degree holders per 10,000 people here is still far low. That means we still have much potential," Li said.

(China Daily January 6, 2003)