China's universities are confronted with a total debts of 300 to 400 billion yuan (42 to 56 billion U.S. dollars) and the situation will last for more than ten years, said a political advisor on Saturday.

"Another one trillion yuan (141 billion U.S. dollars) is needed to reach the target of a gross enrollment rate of 30 percent for higher education. It will take 40 years for the government to cover all the expense," said Xu Hui from the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, a non-Communist party.

Xu made the remarks at a plenary meeting of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body.

Following three days of study and discussion on the government work report from Premier Wen Jiabao, China's political advisors gathered at the Great Hall of the People Saturday morning to voice their opinions on major development issues of the country.

Xu said the situation for local public-owned universities is even worse. Although the number of public-owned universities and their students accounted for 92 percent and 85 percent of the total figures nationwide, their budget only stand at 57 percent of the total.

"Of the limited government investment, only 65 percent has been fulfilled. Many local universities even couldn't make ends meet," said Xu.

He suggested the government raise the higher education budget with an input rise from the current less than 0.6 percent of the GDP to one percent.

In addition, he called on public-owned universities to attract more social capitals through various channels to solve the thorny issues of limited revenues while easing the government's funding pressure.

"The government cannot shoulder all the funding for higher education. Social resources should be further mobilized," he added.

He said that the development for private-owned universities also lagged far behind the national education development with their campus students and college graduates only accounting for 7.6 percent and 1.3 percent respectively of the figure across the country in 2006.

His view was shared by Zheng Jiachun, a CPPCC member, saying that more educational input should also be allocated for rural education, particularly the long-distance education for rural students.

"A department specially for long-distance education in rural areas needs to be set up to further upgrade the rural long-distance educational infrastructure to shorten the digital divide between rural and urban students," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2008)