Quarter of Beijing students suffer depression

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Nearly a quarter of Beijing’s university students suffer from clinical depression, a Chinese newspaper reported on Wednesday, reflecting financial pressures, fierce academic competition and a tight job market for graduates.

At least 100,000 Beijing university students suffered from depression, and 19 had committed suicide in 2004, the Beijing News said, citing a health bureau statement.

“Ignorance of the disease has resulted in a lack of understanding and sympathy for most people with depression,” the paper quoted the health bureau as saying.

The costs of higher education in China, all but free 20 years ago, have rocketed. The price of four years at university, at least 28,000 yuan (about $3,500), was the equivalent of an average Chinese farmer’s income for 35 years, Xinhua reported.

The many students that weather financial hardships face a tight labor market and an undeveloped service sector unable to absorb them on graduation.

China, wary of student discontent following the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square movement in 1989, has been trying to improve the lot of its long suffering students by placing limits on new tertiary admissions and cutting prices of canteen food.

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