Wang Yuanyuan

cheekywang@hotmail.com

Nearly 7,000 freshmen registered at Shenzhen University at the weekend, about 500 more than the number last year.

Among these students, about 330 were enrolled from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Thirty of the Hong Kong students enrolled through an independent enrollment program at the university, the university said on Sunday.

The university enrolled 3,064 students who hold Shenzhen residency permits, 1,239 came from outside Guangdong Province. One hundred and thirty-five students entered the university from designated colleges in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, while 202 are graduates of three-year colleges including Shenzhen Polytechnic and Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology.

Most of the freshmen who were enrolled from outside Guangdong Province had National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE) scores higher than the entrance score required to enter key universities across the country, a university official said.

A total of 282 freshmen received scholarships, 96 more than the number last year.

Shenzhen University plans to become “a university of volunteers” this year and all the students are expected to participate in voluntary services in 2015. Among them, more than 30 percent of the students and teachers will become registered volunteers, serving at least two hours a week.

“Students are expected to receive credit for doing voluntary work,” Li Qingquan, president of the university, said.

Founded in 1996, the volunteer association of Shenzhen University has more than 6,000 registered volunteers and they will participate in services such as blood donation, voluntary teaching, nursing and information consultation at big events on a regular basis, Li said.