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China's educational authorities are trying to curb random fee charges by universities. As part of this move it's reported that the Ministry of Education will re-examine tuition standards based on costs. This has sparked much media debate including the following excerpts.

 

Beijing News: It is hard to curb random fee charges by only examining the operational costs of universities.

 

According to the authorities, there should only be charges for two higher education expenses, namely tuition and boarding fees. The boarding fee is around 800 to 1,200 yuan ($100-148) per student per school year, while tuition is decided by the operational costs of each school. Since the year 2000, the tuition level has been kept at about 25 percent of the routine operating cost per student.

 

If reform had been fully carried out in the university and college logistics sectors, the market would decide the boarding fees. The administration would only have to supervise their collection.

 

The major issue is still the setting of tuition standards.

 

The routine operational costs of a university actually include rational and irrational expenditures. If the total expenditures were not controlled it would not make much sense to set a proportion of only 25 percent for tuition. It would be easy for schools to increase expenses in order to collect more. Also, it would not work to just make a list of unacceptable random charges, as there would always be new items.

 

In the future, the government should conduct public hearings to increase the transparency of tuition and fee charges for higher education.

 

Daily Sunshine: Operational costs of universities should be decided according to our national income level.

 

The operational costs of schools are not always reasonable. For example, it is reported that Renmin University of China spent more than 1 million yuan ($128,057) to install a sightseeing lift and glass curtain in a three-story dining building, Liaocheng University spent more than 3 million yuan ($384,172) to build its gate. If all these were included as operational costs of higher education, the costs would be very high.

 

Higher education is an issue concerning national quality and social fairness. We should let the majority of the public be able to afford it. The tuition standard should be calculated according to national income per capita. In other words, we should find out how much we can pay for higher education first and then decide how much we can spend to run the universities. We should cut the garment according to the figure…act as circumstance allows.

 

Oriental Morning Post: It is an indisputable fact that charges for higher education are a bit too high today. Middle and low-income families are facing difficulties in affording their children's schooling. The new method shows the authorities' determination to curb random fee charges. But it may not bring the expected results.

 

Unlike competitive enterprises, universities and colleges are part of a quasi-monopoly sector in China. Once costs become a base for deciding tuition levels, a monopoly premium will appear. Schools may even waste resources to keep costs high and tuition high.

 

It is not realistic for the State to shoulder all higher education expenditures. The government, schools and the public should all bear the costs. But the government can provide more channels, such as student loans, to ease the burden on the public.

 

Public schools should open their gates to students from low-income families. There should be subsidies and expense standards for them, while rich families can choose expensive and good private schools.

 

(China Daily January 8, 2007)