Government aid provides new opportunities for students

Pledge

The move was in response to a 2009 government pledge to "not let any student drop out of school because of financial difficulties".

From 2012 to last year, more than 1 trillion yuan was allocated in total to 620 million students, according to the Ministry of Education.

Ma Jianbin, deputy director of the National Center for Student Financial Aid, said the State assisted 135 million students from preschool education to higher education last year.

Financial aid for students rose for the 12th consecutive year, reaching 204.3 billion yuan, 8.5 percent higher than in 2017, he said.

Moreover, all students in the nine-year compulsory education system that ranges from primary school to junior high school were exempted from tuition fees and provided with free textbooks.

Nearly 44 million college students received a total of 115 billion yuan in financial aid last year, a rise of 9.48 percent from 2017.

A multifaceted aid program has been established for college students, which includes national scholarships, grants and interest-free loans, school scholarships and grants, subsidies for students from impoverished families, meal subsidies, tuition fee reductions and exemptions.

Meanwhile, a "green channel" has been established, which allows freshmen to register at colleges or universities even if they are unable to pay their tuition fees in full.

Duan was one of the beneficiaries of the financial aid system for university students. In 2012, when she enrolled at Lanzhou University in the capital of Gansu province, one of the best universities in West China, the school exempted her four-year tuition and dormitory fees, and also provided her with a separate dormitory.

"I also received a monthly subsidy of 1,000 yuan from a social welfare organization, which meant I did not have to ask my parents for any money during my four years of college," Duan said.

She later enrolled as a postgraduate student at the university. When she graduated in June, she found a job as a student counselor at a university in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.

"I want to help more students in need to realize their dreams, just as I have," she said.

Yan Chunhua, president of Lanzhou University, said that as one of the key universities in West China, half of its students come from rural areas, 30 percent from impoverished families and 11 percent are members of ethnic groups.

"We have made it one of our top priorities to ensure that students from ethnic groups in impoverished, rural areas, and students from the western regions will not drop out of school because of poverty," Yan said.

Since 2012, the university has provided financial aid to 94,000 undergraduates and more than 120,000 postgraduates, with the total sum reaching almost 1.4 billion yuan, he said.