The tuition fees of higher education, a stage of non-compulsory education, are more than 4,000 yuan every year at present, a heavy burden for many families to support a university student. To help qualified students who cannot afford tuition fees, the state since 1994 has allocated some 1.045 billion yuan of the Premier Reserve Fund and Financial Allocation for Emergency as special funds for subsidizing students with financial difficulties in institutions of higher learning. At the same time, since 1987, the ministries of education and finance and people's governments at all levels have been devoted to establishing a system to subsidize people in an unfavorable situation, particularly students with family financial difficulties. This mainly includes scholarships, loans, work-study programs, subsidies for special difficulties and reduction of or exemption from tuition fees. The Ministry of Education also requires that each institution of higher learning set up a "Green Passageway" system, giving priority to handling all freshmen's registration procedures and then giving them subsidies after their conditions are verified.
At present, a nationwide system of student loans is one of the important channels for helping students with financial difficulties. Established in 1999, it has become a relatively complete system of financial aid policy, through which students in financial difficulties can be granted unsecured credit loans equivalent to their tuition and basic cost of living after their eligibility is proved. At the same time, they may also enjoy 50 percent of the state preferential financial discount. Generally, a student will receive a yearly loan of 8,000 yuan. The term of a loan is generally less than eight years, which can be prolonged when the student is pursuing a higher degree after graduation. The interest rate of student loans is the same as that of the loans for the same term set by the People's Bank of China, brooking no increase. By July 30, 2002, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had issued student loans totaling 1.405 billion yuan, subsidizing 208,900 students in 461 institutions of higher learning.
Elementary and secondary school students in areas of poverty have also benefited from relevant educational policies for the population in an unfavorable situation. In 2001, governmental departments concerned stipulated a maximum on the annual textbook fees and extras fees elementary and secondary school students could be charged in the poorer areas of the country. Besides this, no other charges should be imposed on students. In 2002, the maximum was 160 yuan for elementary school students and 260 yuan for middle school students in rural areas. The policy has eased an economic burden on families of elementary and secondary school students in rural areas.
The government has other educational preferential policies for the population in an unfavorable situation. It set aside funds twice in 1995 and 2001, totaling 8.9 billion yuan, to support nine-year compulsory education in poverty areas; and from 1997 to 2000, it allotted a total of 0.13 billion yuan to subsidizing ethnic-minority students of school age with economic difficulties to go to school. From 2000, the government has held Tibetan Class and Xinjiang Class in cities like Beijing and Shanghai to enable enrollment by junior high school graduates from Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region into regular senior high schools in these cities. In May 2001, the government released a regulation aimed at guaranteeing that the children of nearly 0.15 billion transient population can receive a compulsory education.
