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China to Lift Ban on Marriage, Childbearing for University Students

An official from Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) on January 21, 2005 said current restrictions on marriage and childbearing for college and postgraduate students will be lifted.

Addressing a forum on the subject, held by the Centre for Women's Law and Legal Services of the prestigious Peking University, Fan Yi, an official from the Student Affairs Department from the MOE, said the draft regulation on college student management will no longer prohibit college or graduate students from getting married or having children while in school.

The 50-year-old ban compelled students contemplating marriage or who had gotten pregnant to make painful choices -- give up study or delay marriage; give up study or have an abortion.

According to a survey conducted by the Centre for Women's Law and Legal Services of Peking University, 33.3 percent of 951 undergraduates from 16 universities oppose the prohibition of marriage while 17.7 percent support it. Others were non-committal. Fifty-seven percent of 467 graduate students surveyed at 10 universities are against the prohibition of childbearing while 12 percent were for it.