Institutions of higher education on the Chinese mainland plan to enroll a total of 6.55 million students this year, announced education officials during a national conference on enrollment on Tuesday.
Of that total, 3.35 million will enroll in colleges and universities, up 150,000 from 2002, said the officials.
The 3.35 million would-be enrolled students would neither include those who will pursue on-the-job training nor those enrolled in correspondence courses.
As of the fall of 2002, students at colleges and universities totaled 16 million, double that of 1998.
The rapid expansion of China's higher education in the past four years is reflected in enrollment figures. By 2002, 15 percent of the country's college-age youth were receiving a college education, compared to only 9.8 percent in 1998.
The rapid expansion is partially attributed to China's overall efforts to tap its vast human resources to accelerate its modernization drive.
China currently has a population of 1.3 billion.
(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2003)
