The undergraduate recruitment expansion practised for five years may come to a halt this year at universities that are governed by the Beijing Municipality.

An official from the Beijing Municipal Education Commission said that such a policy change is under consideration.

If the policy is changed, the municipality-owned universities will no longer expand recruitment until the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, according to Wang Pan, a press officer with the commission.

Wang admitted that the number of university graduates is higher than the amount of jobs and that is attributed to the policy change in consideration.

Other cities in the country may follow Beijing's example. Beijing accommodates more universities than any other cities in the country.

Over 900,000 students are now studying at Beijing-based universities, both public and private.

Privately owned colleges will not be affected by the halt of recruitment. These are more market-oriented than State-run ones.

Postgraduate and higher vocational education will be priorities for further development, depending on market demand.

Private universities are encouraged to continue expanding recruitment.

Universities involved are only municipality-owned, excluding those directly under the leadership of the Ministry of Education, such as Peking University and Tsinghua University.

The details of the change are expected to be released in April, Wang said.

Due to an excessive supply of graduates in Shanghai, both job offers to university graduates and graduates' expectation for salaries declined, the Shanghai-based News Morning Post reported.

At a major job fair that was held last weekend in Shanghai, most attendees that will achieve bachelor's degree in summer said they have lowered their monthly salary expectations to about 1,500 yuan (US$180), said sources.

In the past, university graduates in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing usually expected their salaries to be around 3,000 yuan (US$360). During website fever in 2000, computer technology graduates saw the price reach 5,000 yuan (US$604) to 6,000 yuan (US$725).

At yesterday's fair, a fresh graduate student from Shanghai surburbs offered monthly salary expectation of only 800 yuan (US$97) for a post as a secretary for a real estate service company, the local newspaper reported.

Attending companies said that the current salary expectations of university students are reasonable since graduates have outnumbered the jobs available.

It is also emphasized that companies will consider enhancing their salaries if university graduates excel at their jobs after they work at their positions for a period of time.

Some companies are hesitant to hire university students who offer too low salary expectation as they may quit after finding another job with better pay.

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