China will control postgraduate student expansion for the next few years, limiting it to five percent growth, revealed Wu Qidi, vice minister of education at a current academic forum.

Chinese postgraduates number 1.5 million, second only to America. Although the huge population of postgraduates forms a strong backbone for the country's human resource reserve, graduates with masters'degrees become less competitive in the country's labor market compared with undergraduates.

The rate of jobless postgraduates outstripped undergraduates in Guangdong for the first time ever at the end of last year. Unemployed postgraduates reach 6 percent, almost double the level of undergrads.

Experts believe the speedy expansion of enrolment has resulted in a lower quality of education and made postgraduates less competitive in the job market. Wu said universities should pay more attention to education quality rather than to student numbers. The vice minister believes postgraduates should be more creative and professional after two to three more academic years.

Yet this expectation pales in reality. Take Guangdong Province for example, companies in the province are in urgent need of qualified individuals, but these are lacking even among postgraduates, according to Tang Min, deputy chief representative and chief economist in the Asian Development Bank's Beijing Office.

Tang said the unemployment of college students is a problem due to stereotyped education instead of supposed college expansions. He suggests a structural reform among Chinese universities which are expected to be cradles of the social elite.

Tang, the first man in the country who proposed college expansion and vocational education to the State Council, was among the first batch of college graduates in early 1980s when China resumed university entrance exams after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Majoring in math, Tang graduated from Wuhan University in 1982 and continued his academic years in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne.

"The expansion took place much faster than I expected. I suggested colleges double their enrolments every three years but they have grown fivefold in six years," said Tang.

(China.org.cn by Wu Jin, August 29, 2007)