In the summer of 2025, Chinese university tuition fees have officially bid farewell to the “5000 yuan era.” Multiple universities have successively raised tuition fees, with some universities seeing astonishing increases. This indicates the comprehensive arrival of the “ten thousand yuan era”, placing unprecedented economic pressure on numerous Chinese families and profoundly impacting the future of higher education.
Reported by various mainland media such as Sohu, by 2025, over 20 provinces in China have raised university tuition fees, with an average increase of 10%-15%. In certain regions like Shanghai, Sichuan, and Jilin, the hike reaches as high as 20%-35%. Guizhou University raised undergraduate professional tuition fees from 5,000 yuan to 6,500 yuan, marking a 30% increase. Yunnan University saw a surge from 4,200 yuan to 6,000 yuan, a staggering increase of over 42%.
Meanwhile, Beijing University of Technology is approaching 9,000 yuan. Additionally, private universities are even exceeding 40,000 yuan annually in expenses. Private universities are pushing the boundaries further, with Shanghai Overseas Chinese Fine Arts undergraduate program costing 43,000 yuan annually, and Nanjing Media College increasing its Broadcasting major by 10,000 yuan, totaling close to 50,000 yuan.
An article by the research institution “Intelligence Valley Trends,” which focuses on macro trends and financial content, indicates that these expenses essentially equate to half a year to a year’s salary for an average worker in second or third-tier cities. Contrasting with data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the median disposable income per capita in urban areas was 49,302 yuan in 2024, and 19,605 yuan in rural areas. This implies that the annual university tuition for a child is sufficient to deplete an ordinary family’s yearly income.
The explosive growth in the number of university students is behind the soaring tuition fees. Since 1999, universities have expanded enrollment year after year, increasing the enrollment rate from 4% to nearly 60%. The number of university students has risen from 1.5 million in 1999 to 12.22 million in 2025, nearly eight times the original figure.
The surge in tuition fees reflects the escalating financial pressure on Chinese universities, referred to as “black holes for funds.” In 2025, the funding for higher education by the Chinese Ministry of Education decreased by approximately 4.7% compared to 2024. This financial strain then trickles down to provincial and municipal universities, making educational budgets increasingly reliant on tuition fees.
A university financial officer mentioned, “For some majors, without raising prices, it is impossible to survive.”
To bridge the funding gap, public universities have begun treating “resources” as products for sale. They have implemented service fees, diversified revenue streams through technology parks, industrial groups, and commercial projects, and even monetized naming rights for facilities like lecture halls, auditoriums, and laboratories.
In contrast, private universities are adopting a strategy of “expanding enrollment + high prices + low costs” to accelerate their growth. With over 3,000 universities nationwide, private institutions account for a quarter of them. Many of these private schools are operated by profit-driven education groups, boasting remarkable net profit margins, such as China Education Group and Yuhua Education with rates of 38.7% and 47.2%, respectively, surpassing most manufacturing companies. For these private institutions, the more than 100,000 yuan invested by a student over four years has become a “stable cash flow.”
This transformation reflects the collective drive of systematic financial and capital logic. When educational resources are bundled into capital logic, universities become a form of “structural financing” for families. Once seen as a watershed for changing destinies, universities have now become “fault lines of pricing.”
Public universities are treating “resources” as products to be sold: libraries, sports facilities, and parking lots are charged hourly; library resources are tiered for borrowing quotas and fees; “adult education,” “continuing education,” and “non-degree certificate programs” have become sources of profit; establishment of technology parks, industry groups, and commercial projects; and the most extreme – some universities have outsourced book procurement, enrollment promotion, and program operations to external companies.
Now, even naming rights for educational buildings, lecture halls, and labs can be sold, with Tsinghua University raising over 800 million yuan by naming an educational building, and Fudan University setting up a fund granting naming rights for its case study room with a donation of 300,000 yuan.
This whole system is a shared driving force of systematic finance and capital logic.
When educational resources are embedded into capital logic, universities become a form of “structural financing” for families. Once a pivotal point for destiny alteration, universities are now dividing lines of price.
While tuition fees are soaring, Chinese university students are facing the harsh reality of “degree inflation.”
Since the continuous expansion of admissions starting in 1999, the enrollment rate has surged from 4% to nearly 60%. The number of university students has skyrocketed from 1.5 million in 1999 to 12.22 million in 2025, almost eight times the initial figure.
By now, direct spending for a student over four years has already exceeded 100,000 yuan: tuition + accommodation costs at 6,000-15,000 yuan per year, totaling 25,000-60,000 yuan over four years; additional expenses for daily life, textbooks, and sometimes charges for collaborations with enterprises and practical training, averaging a few thousand yuan annually. Rough calculations suggest that expenses easily surpass 150,000 yuan.
However, the reality is that according to data from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, approximately 33% of graduates are employed in fields unrelated to their majors. A report from Sina Education highlights that only 26% of individuals claim that their current jobs align with their studies. Many bachelor’s degree holders are compelled to enter flexible employment, marketing, service industries, among others. The value of a bachelor’s degree is no longer guaranteed.
Moreover, salary levels often fall short of expectations. The “2023 Employment Blue Book” by Michael Page demonstrates that six months after graduation, the average monthly salary for bachelor’s degree holders is 6,050 yuan, with 57.8% earning less than 6,000 yuan a month, and only 7% crossing the 10,000 yuan mark. This is considerably lower than the average starting salary for white-collar workers in many cities.
Families exhaust all efforts to send their children to college, investing at least four years and over 150,000 yuan (tuition, accommodation, living expenses, and other miscellaneous fees), along with significant opportunity costs, only for graduates to potentially secure jobs with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan. The drastic rise in university tuition fees is no longer just a simple price adjustment; it is an unspoken social stratification test that profoundly influences the future choices of Chinese families and social mobility.