Liu Huiqing, 25, from Henan Province, left her job and rented a room last month near Peking University. She comes to the school every day to listen in on classes.

Liu is preparing for her postgrad entrance exam for Beida's administrative management course.

"The lecturer designs part of the exam paper," she explained. "By listening in, I hope to get some helpful clues for the exams."

Like Liu, a big group of visiting students are either undergrads from other universities or workers who have left jobs to prepare for postgraduate programmes.

They try to get exam hints from the lectures and make themselves known to the professors - looking for shortcuts to the new year's postgraduate entrance exams.

Other students listen in on classes for a different reason. They are simply interested in certain courses that their own universities do not offer.

The most-attended courses are those given by well-known professors and those on the subject of art, according to a recent report in China Youth Daily.

At Beida, both groups of students have been nicknamed "Beida marginals" - not registered as Beida students yet living near the school to get free lectures.

Similar "marginal" students can also be found at notable universities in other cities. Most keep a low profile during class.

According to Zhang Yu, an undergrad at Wuhan University's Law School, most of these students sit at the back of the classroom.

"They are silent in class and it is difficult to distinguish them from registered students," Zhang said.

A few are active, said Wang Xin, a first-year postgraduate at Beida's School of Journalism and Communications. "They raise questions for the teacher and enter discussions with classmates."

In most cases, both teachers and students tolerate the free-ride.

"I feel like a formal student in the class," said Liu from Henan.

"Nobody cares who you are or where you are from. About a third of the class are from outside."

So do schools tacitly consent to this?

"I neither support nor oppose people listening in on my lecture," said Zhang Guoqing, professor of Administrative Management at Beida.

"A university is an open place for spreading knowledge to as many people as possible. So, I never oust any marginal student from my class - so long as they observe school rules."

But school regulations are stricter with marginal students.

Wuhan University of Science and Technology forbids unauthorized attendance.

"If someone is found attending without permission, he or she should leave right away," said a dean, Sheng Jianlong.

"The school's resources are limited and we must look after the registered students first," Sheng said.

(China Daily December 30, 2002)