Chinanews, Beijing, September 6 – According to a report by China Youth Daily, due to sharp social polarization in China, most families in the country find it hard to afford college tuition.Chai Xiaowu, an economist of Zhejiang University, recently completed a research on the tuition system of Chinese colleges. “It is hard for an ordinary Chinese family to afford the tuition and living expense of one college student today, let alone poor families,” said Chai.The statistics by Wang Shanmai, the director of the Economics Research Center of Beijing Normal University, also show that the tuition of Chinese colleges had grown at an annual rate of 27.65% in 1993 – 1997. The growth rate in 1999 was 40.3%. Since then, the tuition had kept the rapid growth until 2000, when the average tuition of Chinese colleges reached 5,000 yuan. The annual accommodation for a college student also broke 1,000 yuan.“The statistics collected in 2004 show that a Chinese urbanite had to spend 4.2 years’ net income, and a farmer 13.6 years’ annual income to pay for the 4-year tuition of a college student,” said Qinhui, a Tsinghua University professor.Expensive college tuition has touched off wide complaint since 2000. Though the government has issued a series of new policies to control its growth, they have been proved to be ineffective.