Elite colleges must embrace rural students
Education has been a ladder of social ascendancy in China since ancient times and that is still the case today.
Higher education is the key to social mobility. Yet where a person is born has a significant bearing on their future success. Students from rural areas are at a distinct disadvantage in their schooling compared to urban students and for the majority of students in the countryside, enrollment at one of the country's top universities is still an unattainable dream.
Despite pledges by the government that education is one of its priorities, China continues to be a country where the best university education remains out of reach of the rural population. Students from the country's poor, rural areas are still largely excluded from the elite universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University.