Hype around university visit harmful

Just two weeks after the country's top two universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University, allowed their alumni to bring visitors to their campus, Peking University canceled that privilege for 46 alumni who had abused the provision to make commercial profit.

Reports say the 46 alumni made appointments to visit the campus with companions but didn't themselves show up. Besides, although it was a free service, these alumni charged their companions 10,800 yuan ($1,509) each. Some of them outsourced the job to agents who sold tickets at prices higher than the entry fee to Universal Studios.

Many high school students visit these top universities in the hope of studying there one day. The universities allow visitors only if accompanied by alumni, a provision the alumni were abusing. While the visitors coughed up money that was not required, only the agents and alumni organizing the visits made profits.

Peking University did the right thing by canceling the 46 alumni's power. However, to prevent the new provision from becoming a business, they should balance supply with need.

University management groups should see tourists as a chance to build up their university's image. By opening their doors to high school students, they can attract more talents to study there later. Visiting the campus will surely inspire the students to work harder so that they can one day get high enough scores to enter the portals of a university of their choice to study there.

So such visits have their benefits but nobody should be allowed to commercialize the provision. Perhaps the hype around the visits is to blame for the ill practice. The provision to visit the campuses should be treated as something normal. That might stop agents from abusing the provision to make illicit profits.