The first day at college was a sorrowful one for Deng Xin, 18, whose mother committed suicide the day before she received her admission notice.

It was the pressure of Kunming Medical College's exorbitant tuition fees that caused the suicide, Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

Deng, not her real name, was born into a poor family in Daxing village in southwest China's Yunnan Province. She learned in June that she had secured a place to study at the medical college.

But what should have been good news became a huge weight on the mind of Deng's mother, Li Fenxiang, who was the only breadwinner for her family of five.

The girl's father was paralyzed by a cerebral thrombus three years ago. She also has a 70-year-old grandmother and a 15-year-old sister, who is in her third year of junior middle school.

The family, with an annual income of only several hundred yuan, have run up debts of more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,235) since Deng's father became disabled.

"Mum was troubled all day about the cost of the tuition fees, which amount to several thousand yuan per year," Deng was quoted by Xinhua as saying. "My younger sister also needs money to complete her junior middle school education."

On the morning of August 1, Li could not handle the pressure any longer and resorted to hanging herself.

The day after Li's death, Deng received her admission notice as well as a document listing various financial aid policies available from the government.

The girl is still struggling to accept the harsh reality: "Would my mum have chosen to die if she had known about these policies?"

Perhaps not, but would the family thus have been relieved from their burden?

"This college's tuition is far more than average rural people can afford," said Wang Chunming, an official at Beijing University of Technology in charge of student loans. "But poor students can finish their college studies by taking student loans or being exempted from tuition fees."

But the student loan system has been criticized for having several loopholes.

Lu Fachang, an employee of the Yunnan branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, said the risk involved in student loans is high because of lack of a sound credit system. The poor repayment rates make banks reluctant to offer student loans.

Both Wang and Lu called for a new improved student loans system. "Students must have the right to take loans from the banks where they come from, in addition to where they study," Lu said.

(China Daily September 22, 2005)