CHINA: University enrolment crisis looms

For decades, attending university has been the Chinese version of the 'American Dream', promising a rise from rags to riches for those who have studied hard and invested heavily in education. But a recent slump in the number of students enrolling to take the college entrance examinations has awakened universities to an inconvenient truth: they will soon have to contend with a decreasing number of students, write Yao Yuan, Guo Jiuhui and Liu Baosen for Xinhuanet.

This year, central China's Henan Province reported a decrease of 97,000 applicants for the national college entrance exam (NCEE). It is the largest year-on-year drop for the province after the number of applicants took a downward spiral in 2008. The province, however, after registering 855,000 applicants for the exam in June, still ranks first in China.

More alarming is that the trend is becoming national. According to a report on eol.cn, a major portal reporting on education in China, this year's NCEE registration has dropped 10% in Anhui, 6% in Beijing and 12% in Shanghai. A number of factors, including a declining birth rate, difficulties in obtaining quality education, and easier access to overseas universities, have combined to drain the student pool of Chinese universities.
Full report on the Xinhuanet site