Society

College grads set up camp near campus

By Wang Yan (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-02-11 07:39

 

Students buy food outside Tsinghua University’s western gate in Beijing (2010 photo). YIN YAFEI / FOR CHINA DAILY	Wang Yingjie, a 2009 graduate of Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, rented this nearby apartment while preparing for the grad school entrance exam (2010 photo). PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

A different drift

Ji Xiang, 27, drifted from one school to another for five years before achieving his goal of entering grad school. For him, grad school is not only "a way out", but it becomes a must given what he sees as society's blind belief in degrees.

He started drifting in 2004, just one year after being admitted to a local university in his hometown of Dong-ying, Shandong province. "I quit because the university and the major (engineering) were not good."

Ji then headed to Shandong University in Jinan and audited the classes of an English major.

He said his father strongly opposed his decision to drop out and sit in another class that doesn't guarantee a degree. "But I thought learning real knowledge was more important than getting an empty degree."

In late 2005, he drifted up to Peking University to learn more about international politics.

Like many other school-drifters, Ji settled in the cheapest place he could find, a 190-yuan-a-month bungalow near the campus. For living expenses, he depended on tuition refunds from the school he had left, plus part-time work as a tutor.

Free classes, though, were not easy to get, for the curriculum schedules are not open to the public. Ji started by wandering the classroom building, sitting in every class he caught up with and noting the dates and places. In that way he made his own schedule.

"It was a busy and rich time. I listened to everything and almost became an expert in the field," Ji said, showing a smile with satisfaction. But he also realized that knowledge doesn't immediately bring salt and bread.

"I tried to find jobs in the middle, but all I got by then was a vocational school-level degree," which he obtained by taking the country's exams for the self-taught.

He said many of his ideal employers wouldn't even look at his resume.

He then decided to get into grad school - but the country sets a bachelor's degree as a prerequisite for postgraduate exams. By the end of 2007, he completed the task by taking higher-level exams for the self-taught. And after a failed attempt in 2008, he finally became a grad student at China University of Petroleum in Beijing, in September 2009, majoring in international politics.

Ji is now in his second year and is interning at ifeng.com in Beijing, a news portal owned by Phoenix, a Hong Kong-based TV broadcaster. He said he wants to work in the media after graduation.

"It's like I've taken an indirect route," he said, "I was kind of naive to think that simply learning knowledge would carve a niche for myself.

"In most cases, you've got to have a degree to fit into society."

(China Daily 02/11/2011 page1)

 

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