A recent survey, conducted by the Ministry of Education, found that urban residents were 280 times more likely to have a college degree than people from rural areas.

The results highlight the growing issue of China's widening gap of higher education opportunities between the city and the countryside.
 
The survey was intended to find out whether rural and urban population have the equal chance of access to higher education.

People holding a bachelor degree in cities and towns accounted for 5.63 percent of the urban population, while this percentage in countryside was as low as 0.02 percent, according to the survey.

The survey also found that people living in a city were 323 times more likely to hold a master's degree than those in rural areas, where only 0.001 percent of the population had a post-graduate degree, it said.

The number of people living in countryside account for more than 60 percent of China's general population, but the survey found that less than half of the rural population received beyond an elementary school education.

The survey also revealed that key universities had recruited fewer rural students during the past decade.

For example, the elite Tsinghua University saw rural recruitment shrink from 21.7 percent in 1990 to 17.6 percent in 2000. Other key universities including Peking University and Beijing Normal University witnessed similar trends in recent years.

According to the survey, of the small number of rural residents who were lucky enough to get college education, the majority went to average local universities.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2005)