With the recent growth of interest in pursuing post-graduate studies in China, top universities in Beijing have become even more attractive.

All Beijing-based universities have witnessed an increase in the number of registrations for graduate school entrance examinations for 2002, scheduled for January 26-28 this year.

Among them, Beijing University has reported 18,134 registrations, a 32.44 percent rise over last year. Tsinghua University declined to release its figures, but is widely believed to have received 11,500 registrations.

Qiu Shouyin, vice president of the Graduate School of Beijing University, said that law, MBA, finance, mass media and computer science remained the majors most in demand this year. In contrast, basic subjects such as literature, history and philosophy have attracted less interest.

The desire to pursue post-graduate studies is not new in China however. Qiu attributed the recent increase in interest to a job market that increasingly favors professionals with higher degrees of education.

"Recent stricter US restrictions on the enrollment of foreign students and expected changes in examination patterns in 2003 also helped the boom this year," Qiu said.

(01/22/2002, PD online)