When recruiting postgraduates Chinese colleges will take personality and morality into account, reported the Beijing Daily Messenger Monday.

 

Teachers will test students on various qualities including morality, political knowledge, psychological health, manners and sense of responsibility.  

 

Previously colleges got information on the personalities of prospective students from archived material and the evaluations of former schools.

 

Zhang Fengyou, an official in charge of postgraduate recruitment at the Ministry of Education, said a team of teachers would discuss whether a student be admitted and report to school leaders who'd make the final decision.

 

Guo Zhao, a teacher in charge of the postgraduate recruitment at Tsinghua University, said they'd ask a series of questions on hot social topics and current affairs to understand students' personalities and political knowledge in the second part of the exam.

 

Teachers may also give marks to students who display innovative expertise or excellent achievements in specific areas of knowledge, the report said.

 

Students can appeal to colleges or education departments if they're dissatisfied about the results of the second part of the exam. Any review would be conducted according to the rules of the education ministry, Zhang said.

 

Chinese universities plan to recruit 424,000 postgraduate students this year. This is an increase of 6 percent over last year, the ministry said.

 

(Shanghai Daily February 6, 2007)