Regulations designed to strengthen supervision of privately owned colleges and guarantee their quality and healthy development are also expected, said Wei Yaping, an official with the Information Office of the Ministry of Education.

More than 1,000 privately owned colleges are operated across the country, 73 of which are qualified to issue diplomas with the authorization of the Ministry of Education, according to the ministry's latest statistics.

The ministry said this number is likely to increase in the future.

Regular universities and colleges throughout China recruited 1.8 million students this year, with the admission rate averaging 49 per cent.

Many of the students who are not admitted to State universities and colleges opt to attend privately owned colleges.

"Privately owned colleges must now enter the phase of steady development," said Liu Lin, vice-president of Beijing Haidian University, one of the capital's 94 privately owned colleges.

Haidian University, one of the city's three privately owned colleges qualified to issue diplomas, enrolled more than 8,000 students this year, seeing a 30 per cent rise from last year.

However, many privately owned colleges, especially those without approval to issue diplomas, are suffering a shortage of students.

Peizheng Business College in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, aimed to recruit 2,000 students this year but only managed to enroll 1,000.

Although competition is tight in the educational market, many students are unwilling to pay the fees of privately owned colleges. Tuition fees range between 2,500 yuan (US$300) and 6,000 yuan (US$722) an academic year.

To improve educational quality in privately owned colleges, Jiangxi, Henan and many other provinces have permitted exchanges of teachers between government-funded and privately owned colleges.

Lack of management and low quality will taint the reputation of privately owned colleges and scare away students, Wei said.

The Beijing Consumers' Association warned consumers recently to look out for false and misleading advertisements provided by some privately owned colleges after receiving many complaints earlier this summer.

(China Daily 09/10/2001)