China expands financial aid to college students

BEIJING -- China granted about 54.8 billion yuan ($8.96 billion) to college students nationwide in 2012, an increase of 6.44 percent year on year.

China has provided a full set of financial aid to college students, including scholarships, stipends, student loans as well as tuition waivers, in a move to boost education equality, Zhang Guangming, director of the China National Center for Student Financial Aid, said on Sunday.

According to official statistics, 1.4 billion yuan was granted to 95,000 students as national scholarship, 3.4 billion yuan given to 683,100 students as national encouragement scholarship, and 13.6 billion to 4.86 million students as stipends in 2012.

China also provided college loans of 14.9 billion yuan to 2.6 million students across the country in the same period, according to the center.