China to offer more scholarship slots, financial aid to students
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The country will double the annual scholarship quota for undergraduate students to 120,000.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING – China will hand out twice the number of scholarships and step up financial aid to students as part of a series of policy measures announced by the Ministry of Finance on Oct 12.
The country will double the annual scholarship quota for undergraduates to 120,000, for postgraduates to 70,000, and for doctoral students to 20,000, Vice-Finance Minister Guo Tingting said at a briefing.
The limit on student loans will also be raised.
The measures come as youth unemployment rose in August to the highest level in 2024.
With the economic outlook remaining gloomy, many college students choose to stay in campus for further education.
A flurry of Chinese universities are extending the duration of their postgraduate programmes in a bid to ease pressure on the labour market.
China will also increase the annual scholarship value to 10,000 yuan (S$1,850) per undergraduate, up from 8,000 yuan now, Ms Guo said.
The country spent a total of 93.2 billion yuan to support more than 30 million college students in 2023, according to the Finance Ministry.
Student loans, which are disbursed by banks, amounted to 70 billion yuan in 2023. BLOOMBERG
