In China's commercial hub Shanghai, graduate schools and research institutions have received applications from some 80,000 candidates, a 32.6 percent rise year-on-year, said a source from the city's education and testing authority.

About 48 percent of these applicants are senior students expecting a bachelor's degree in a few months and the remaining 52 percent are earlier graduates who wish to pursue a master's degree to boost their career development.

Most applicants wish to concentrate on business administration, law, finance, computers, international trade, English, accounting, management science and engineering, communications and information systems, which are among the top ten most popular fields in China today.

However, official figures suggest a drop of nearly 600 applicants for master of business administration programs this year, the first ever decline since China launched its annual nationwide MBA admission test in the mid 1990s.

Analysts say the decline is a result of easier access to MBA education at home and abroad, both full-time and part-time, and the increasing popularity of other programs such as master of public administration and master of engineering.

In response to the country's call for senior lawyers, Shanghai's law schools have reported an increase of 1,200 applicants, or 47.8 percent, over last year.

In northeast China's Liaoning Province, over 40,000 students have applied to go to graduate school, a 40-percent rise over 2002.

Some of them have given up well-paid jobs in order to further their education.

Ms Xiang has been working as a white-collar worker at a Sino-foreign joint venture in Shenyang since she graduated from college in 1996.

"The pay is quite good. After all, not everyone can earn 4,000 yuan (US$480) a month in Shenyang," she said.

However, Xiang felt she had to update herself through further education in order to sharpen her competitive edge in a fast-moving society and find an even better job later on.

Her newly-wed husband, a doctoral student at the Shenyang Agriculture University, also supported her in the decision, she said.

While white collars like Ms Xiang seek further career development through postgraduate studies, most undergraduate students wish to continue their education and shun the intense competition on the job market.

The number of college graduates in China has been on the steady rise for the past two years. The year 2003 will see a peak in the number of graduates since Chinese colleges and universities enlarged their enrollment in 1999.

Earlier reports said that some 2.12 million students would finish college in 2003, 670,000 more than in 2002.

In the Chinese capital of Beijing alone, 112,000 college students would graduate this year, or 23,000 more than in 2002, and the largest number in history, said Ren Zhanzhong, director of the Beijing Graduate Employment Guide Center.

Many students pin their hopes on the haven of graduate schools, where they expect to learn more and be more prepared for the job market in two or three years.

Universities and colleges across the country have also expanded their enrollment of postgraduate students. To ensure quality education, they have enlarged faculties, added more classroom buildings and laboratories and set higher demands for the students' independent research capacity.

The prestigious Beijing University, which always receives the largest number of candidates, received 18,000 applications this year, said Sheng Yuhai, a graduate school enrollment official.

Most students were becoming more rational in choosing their major and had mapped out detailed plans for their future, he said.

"In their telephone queries, the students are more interested in the teaching and research capacity, configuration of curricula and career development potentials," said Sheng.

In the past, however, most students simply asked how many vacancies were available, and what the bottom line was for their admission, he added.

Chinese universities and colleges reported 490,000 postgraduate students in 2002. The figure is expected to top one million by 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency January 3, 2003)