Chinese Wonder at Sharp, Unexpected Drop in Students Taking College-Entry Exam

Shanghai — China’s all-important university-entrance examinations could be a little less important this year. When the three-day test begins, on Sunday, the number of students taking it across the country will be substantially lower than last year, with hundreds of thousands of fewer applicants.

Reports in the local and national press cite both the economic crisis, which has hit young job seekers especially hard, and the continued popularity of studying abroad.

Since 2002, the number of students taking the gaokao, as the exam is known in China, has risen steadily. The Ministry of Education expected this year would be no different, increasing the number of admissions places in colleges and universities by 4 percent to accommodate new applicants. Instead, only 10.2 million students — nearly 4 percent fewer than last year — registered to take the exam, the Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

Today’s China Daily suggests the growing popularity of overseas undergraduate degrees may be a factor. Students who are accepted by foreign universities do not need to take the gaokao.

Most reports in the local news media, however, blame the bleak job outlook for recent graduates. In the past few months, new graduates have had such trouble finding work that some have accepted jobs as domestic helpers. That such work — previously unthinkable for college-educated people in China — does not require a degree may have struck high-school students contemplating their futures.

The Chinese government is so concerned about the number of jobless graduates that it has unveiled various schemes this year to keep them occupied, through service or training work. But this week, according to Xinhua, a top official in the Ministry of Education denied the weak job market was to blame for the drop in test-takers. —Mara Hvistendahl