By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-08 10:02

As freshmen began a new life on university campuses this week, those from well-off families have been on shopping sprees while others with humbler financial resources were scrambling to pool enough money to fund fees and living expenses.

Poor parents of freshmen at Central China Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei Province sleep on the floor surface of the school's gymnasium on September 3, 2007. The school also provided sleeping mats, coverlets, bath facilities and hot tea. [newsphoto]

A man surnamed Wen flew from Chengdu in Sichuan Province to Beijing with his wife last week to help their 18-year-old son settle down in Tsinghua University. Since it was the first time the teenager was leaving home, Wen and his wife plan to spend two weeks in the capital to make sure everything is all right.

Besides the cost of air tickets and hotel accommodation, Wen spent more than 30,000 yuan to buy his son a laptop computer, an MP3 player, an E-dictionary, a digital camera and a mobile phone.

"The trip and shopping cost a lot of money but I think it is necessary to help my son enjoy his campus life," Wen said.

According to the bulletin boards of many universities, a freshman's necessities cost less than 1,500 yuan.

Hong Chengwen, a professor at the education and management department of Beijing Normal University, suggested that parents give children more space to grow up and let them handle their own affairs.

"College students should learn how to manage their budget," Hong said. "A healthy consumption habit will benefit a person for life; and there is no need to buy too many unnecessary, expensive things at one time."

For Li Yanjun, a freshman from a village in Suzhou of North China's Shanxi Province, the cost of luxury goods sounds astronomical.

"I brought only about 1,000 yuan, most of that borrowed from relatives and fellow villagers," Li said. "My family just about manages to make ends meet as our only income is from crops."

Li applied for a 24,000-yuan ($3,200) loan at Peking University earlier this week under the Green Channel program - which enables poor students to register for college first and pay tuition fees later with the help of subsidized loans and reduced fees.

"Without the loan and the Green Channel, I would have had to go home," said Li, whose father is a disabled farmer.

Along with about 300 disadvantaged freshmen in the university, Li received a gift package worth 3,000 yuan, including clothes and quilts, food coupons, daily necessities and stationery along with a portable computer hard disk.

At the end of 2005, there were more than 4 million college students from poor families, of which 70 percent were from rural areas, according to figures from the Ministry of Education.

The government has promised to spend 50 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) this year to aid poor students through national scholarships, stipends and student loans.

(China Daily 09/08/2007 page3)