More Chinese youths enroll in universities

[United Press International]

BEIJING, May 8 (UPI) -- The percentage of college-age
Chinese youths entering institutions of higher learning increased
last year by nearly a fifth.
The government's Xinhua news service reported Saturday 17
percent of Chinese youths of college age entered institutions of
higher learning last year, two percentage points higher than during
2002.
The enrollment of China's institutions of higher learning
has been expanding gradually during recent years, with the recruited
number of students increasing to 3.4 million in 2002 from 1.08
million in 1998.
In 2003, a total of 3.8217 million students entered Chinese
universities or colleges, a rise of 19.24 percent year on year. The
total number of students on campus was 11.0856 million last year, up
22.72 percent compared with 2002.
China had 1,552 institutions of higher learning in 2003, and
there were 720 institutions offering graduate degrees. The number of
graduate students was 651,300 in China last year