Chinese Universities to Cut Growth Rate

BEIJING — Chinese universities will sharply cut the rate of growth in enrollment to cope with problems of overcrowding and inadequate facilities, the newspaper China Daily said Thursday.

College enrollment increases will be held to between 2% and 5% annually from this year through 1990, compared to a growth rate of 17% in the 1981-85 period, the newspaper said.

It said college administrators attending a national conference agreed that the current goal of 750,000 undergraduates in 1990 is not practical and settled on a figure of 680,000. They said junior colleges, correspondence schools and other programs will help satisfy the demand for higher education.