This winter proves a hard one for Wen Yunyu, who not only need to work hard everyday to gain admission as a postgraduate at the University of Science and Technology of China, but is also forced to "fight" for a seat in his college's library.
"I and my six other classmates formed 'alliances for seats' the day we decided to sit for postgraduate exams for 2012," the 22-year-old senior at Taiyuan-based North University of China (NUC) of Shanxi Province told the Global Times.
Desks in self-study rooms in the college's library are popular on campus as places that allow intense concentration and focus.
On ordinary days, there desks mainly appeal to postgraduate candidates or those who want to sit for the civil-servant recruitment exam. But when mid-term or final exams come, freshmen, sophomores and juniors all join in the mad scramble for seats and study carrels.
Early birds
Wen usually wakes up at 6 am, regardless of whether it is weekday or weekend, over the past two months, only to find a line of students 100 meters long and 15 meters wide already queued before the library door.
"These situations are practically hopeless," Wen lamented.
Others have proven more diligent. Students at Wuhan-based Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) were found lining up all night just to get a seat in library since December, one month before the early-January postgraduate and final exam.
Some camped out, fully equipped with hot water and instant noodles, to help fight the bitter cold.
The pain of staying up all night is worthwhile, said Wang Jun, a 22-year-old junior at HUST, as one can keep a desk all to him or herself for a long time - several weeks in some cases - by placing his or her belongings on the desk to "prove ownership."
"Though the rules stipulate that one cannot leave anything on desks when the library closes, many insist on leaving a pile of books on their desks, which library attendants find too troublesome to remove every night," Wang said.
Sometimes, fights occur as a result of belongings being discarded by opportunistic vultures who swoop in when the desk's original occupant has stepped away.
In the case of Wen, these fights got physical.
"When the door [of the library] opens, the mad dash begins, with some losing shoes, others books and some left alone and weeping," Wen said.
Relationships and connections count in the fights for desks too.
Wang, who plans to apply to the postgraduate program at Sichuan University, has found a shortcut to "own" a desk in a heated room without fighting or sitting up for nights on end.
"Some desks in our library can be locked, and one of my upperclassmen friends promised to give me her key to the lock when she graduates," Wang explained.
Entrenched problem
According to a survey by China Youth Daily, over 86 percent of some 1,709 students surveyed have needed to fight for a desk whilst attending university in China.
Chinese universities have rapidly expanded in size over the past decade.
However, investment in teaching facilities like libraries has lagged behind spending on office building or luxury hotels on campus, the Beijing-based newspaper said.
Quite a few universities are generous when building fancy statues or gates but can be stingy when it comes to enriching the stock of the libraries, a college teacher surnamed Wu from Anhui Province told the Global Times.
In recent years, an increasing number of students have been taking postgraduate exams or civil servant exams, a result of fiercer competitions in job market, Zhang Huiya, a graduate from Capital University of Economics and Business, told the Global Times.
Postgraduate examinees hit a record high of 1.5 million in 2011, triple the figure of 2001, while attendees of the public-service entrance exam also increased over 16 times between 2003 and 2011, according to data reported by media.
Irresponsibility and students' poor time management are also responsible for the bottleneck, Wu added.
"Some even unroll toilet paper over a whole row of desks in order to keep them all for themselves," Zhang said.