University's stress on fitness welcome

Tsinghua University recently announced that starting from this year its students will not get certificates after graduation unless they know how to swim. After Tsinghua's decision, some media outlets reported that Xi'an Jiaotong University in Northwest China's Shaanxi province has for nearly two decades required its undergraduate students to learn and practice tai chi.

Given that Chinese universities are not known to link sports to their courses, the regulations of Tsinghua and Xi'an Jiaotong universities seem out of place. This becomes even more obvious when one considers the fact that the two are century-old and prestigious universities whose regulations and courses draw wide public attention.

But a closer look at the two universities' decisions shows their decisions should not have sparked a controversy. Anyone acquainted with Tsinghua University's curriculums knows physical education, like other professional courses, includes compulsory and selective courses, which students have to pass to be eligible for graduation. In fact, such regulations are normal in any university or college in China.