FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A DECADE, THE NUMBER of students from rural areas attending the China Agricultural University (CAU) has dropped to below 30 percent of its enrollment. This is a clear sign that increasingly less rural kids will have the chance to pursue a better life by receiving college education.

Premier Wen Jiabao said in 2009 that when he was at university 80 percent of his classmates were from rural areas but the percentage has dropped considerably since then. The premier said this was of great concern.

Statistics also indicate that the better the university, the fewer students from rural areas it enrols. Research in 2009 showed that on average rural students made up 50 percent of the total number of students on campus, but the percentage dropped to around 30 percent at prestigious universities.