Dad refuses to pay for daughter's dream

A 19-year-old from Chengdu, Sichuan Province will see her dream of attending university come true when the school semester starts in just a few days, after collecting enough donations to pay her 7,000 yuan ($1,143)-tuition fee this year.

Lingling, identified under a pseudonym, came to rely on the generosity of others after her father, a self-made businessman, refused to pay for her post-secondary education.

"My father can afford my tuition fees, but he didn't want me to go to university," Lingling told Chengdu Business Daily.

Her father, originally from a small village near Chengdu, told his daughter that studying at university is "useless."

Ke Juan, the journalist from Chengdu Business Daily who reported Lingling's story, said that after people read about her story, the paper received more than 50 calls from readers, saying that they wanted to donate money to let Lingling fulfill her dream of going to university.

The readers' sentiments contrasted with 60 percent of 10,000-plus respondents that took part in an online poll by social network qq.com, who supported Lingling's father on Monday, saying that real-world experience will help people learn much faster than going to class in an "ivory tower."

To go, or not to go

Lingling's father said that while he wants his daughter to pursue the life that she wants, he can't agree to support her if he doesn't believe what she is doing is right.

Lingling's uncle, Li Qi, told the Global Times that despite doing well for himself today, Lingling's father has only completed primary school.

"We've seen how 'knowledge can change a life,'" said Li. "But, we've also seen college students from our village fail to find a job after graduation."

Wang Lei, 25, who is still job-hunting after graduating from a university in Changsha, Hunan Province this summer, told the Global Times that if he hadn't gone to school, he would have already found a job in his hometown and started to earn money for his family.

But Li Yuhua, a graduate from the United International College in Zhuhai, said that she has no regrets about going to college, even though she is currently unemployed.

"I'm sure that earning my college degree will benefit me in the long-term future."

A sound investment?

According to Liu Yunbin, an associate professor of education at Peking University, the idea of a "useless education" prevails more than ever today, especially in rural areas and among relatively poor families.

In fact, his research suggests that freshmen from rural areas at top universities have dropped by as much as 30 percent at some schools in recent years.

"Fewer students from the countryside think about pursuing school now," Liu told the Global Times. "Going to college used to be something that villagers felt proud of, but things have changed."

Yang Dongping, director of 21st Century Education Research Institute, added that some families don't see college as a sound investment.

"A family has to invest at least 40,000 yuan to put a kid through college, but it could take years for a college graduate to return that sum to the family," he told the Global Times.

But one of Lingling's donors, a man surnamed Huang, said that college shouldn't just be thought of as a career investment - after all, it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"I met my best friends and my wife in college; it was the best four years of my life," he told the Global Times. "The memories I have from those days are irreplaceable and I'm grateful for that. We shouldn't place all of the importance of college on education."

Life after school

With more than 3 million college graduates entering the workforce this year, 2013 has gained a reputation for being the hardest year for young people to land jobs. The situation has led to further skepticism about the usefulness of a college or university degree.

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at National Institute of Education Sciences, said that students are partly helpless after graduation because schools don't prepare them well for entering the workforce.

"The system fails to provide enough instruction on career-planning and job-hunting, so it's hard for students to make that leap into the real world," he told the Global Times.