The ratio of students from rural areas enrolling at China’s Agricultural University this year has fallen under 30 percent for the first time in the past 10 years, Beijing News reports.

A total 3,057 undergraduates registered with the CAU on Aug 21, 2011, among which only 28.26 percent are from rural areas.

Zhou Xufeng, director of the admission office at the CAU said the decrease is partly due to the rapid urbanization process and also reflects that basic education in rural areas lags behind that of urban cities.

Zhou also said some students from rural areas are reluctant to take jobs related to agriculture.

For many of them, college is a way to get out of the rural areas, he said.

However, some students from urban cities voiced a different opinion.

Wu You from Beijing’s 101 High School, who grossed 659 in her national entrance exam this year surpassing the admission line of the Peking University or Tsinghua University, chose to enter the CAU to continue her biology studies.

She said, “Despite a lot of my teachers urging me to apply for Peking or Tsinghua University, I don’t regret my choice at all, because all I want to do is to go back to the labs to do my research”.

Another girl surnamed Gao from Dalian, North China’s Liaoning province, who scored 660 in the national entrance exam, also chose to study at the CAU and she said it is her love for biology that led her to the University.