Universities across the country will enroll a record number of 8,000 students this year, who should promise to serve the army after graduation, according to sources with the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

While accelerating the modernization drive, the PLA has found it difficult to satisfy its increasing demand for professionals, especially those majoring in electronic and mechanical engineering, if only depending on military universities. So the PLA tried to entrust civilian universities to cultivate military professional officers from 1998.

On May 30 of 2000, China published a regulation entrusting civilian universities to train military students for the PLA, who are required to sign contracts to serve the army after graduation.

By now, there are about 15,000 students of this kind working at90 universities, most of them majoring in engineering and information technology, which are believed crucial to the military modernization, said an officer of the department.

High school graduates can sign up to be this kind of military student at university if they pass the necessary physical, political and cultural examination, and junior university students also can apply, he said.

During their studies, all 8,000 students will be entitled to a scholarship of 5,000 yuan (US$602) a year with adjustment for cost-of-living differences.

Different from students of military schools, these students are enrolled under the same requirements as other civilian students and will be treated the same as their peers in civilian universities in daily life except for some basic military training.

They can enjoy the freedom of common students and still have the chance to be postgraduates after making agreements with the military units.

"I wished to be a military officer when I was a child, but I was afraid of tough physical training which I had to face in common training procedures. This kind of enrollment satisfied me with its more soft physical training and more colorful campus life," said Chu Xiong, a junior student of Beijing University of Science and Engineering who signed a contract promising to serve the army.

"Although most students choose to be military officers because of interest in the army, the financial aid and ensured employment are reasons why so many students make the choice," said Liu Handong, official in charge of managing those students at the Beijing University of Science and Engineering.

The cost of higher education in China began to soar since the mid-1990s. Tuition fees shot from several hundred yuan a year in the 1980s to between 3,500 yuan (US$420) and 8,000 yuan (US$960), not counting room and board.

Several thousand of those students who have graduated from universities have performed well and are welcomed by military units. This kind of enrollment has become an important channel to select and cultivate military officers, the officer said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2004)