Universities Change Vacation Schedules for Olympics
Photo taken on March, 22, 2007 shows that the Peking University Gymnasium, the venue for 2008 Olympics Ping-Pong events, is under construction. The construction work at the south-east of the university is expected to finish by the end of 2007. [File Photo: Xinhua]

Universities in Beijing will alter their winter and summer vacation schedules next year to make time for volunteer training and stadium construction for the 2008 Olympics.

According to Tuesday's Beijing Evening News reports, university students in Beijing will have their shortest ever winter vacation early next year and the longest summer vacation next summer.

The winter break for Peking University students, for example, is slated to end on February 17, ten days earlier than usual, while the summer holidays will start on June 21, ten days earlier than before.

More than 30 percent of the students at Peking University, or over ten thousand people, have applied for Olympics volunteer works. They will start trainings this month until the grand event commences next August.

Tsinghua University, which also has over ten thousand volunteers, will finish its 2008 winter vacation on February 24, instead of the traditional early March. Their summer vacation will begin in late June, ten days earlier than usual.

Other colleges in the city will change their vacation schedules for 2008 as well, although not arranged by the municipal education commission.

Middle schools and primary schools in the capital have no plans so far to shift vacation times.

Meanwhile, the municipal education commission denied guesses that Beijing might hold the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) earlier next year than other cities around the country, saying such changes would have been informed to the society at least one year in advance. The NCEE is held annually from June 6 to 9.

(CRI November 8, 2007)