POSTGRADUATES, undergraduates and technical college graduates from universities in Guangdong Province will be treated as fresh graduates when seeking employment within two years of graduation, according to a new policy announced by the provincial education authorities Monday.

The policy is also applicable to Guangdong students who have graduated from universities outside the province and come back to Guangdong for employment, as well as those who graduated from overseas universities.

These graduates will enjoy the same benefits as fresh graduates within two years of graduation if they fail to land a job during the period. The period allowed for Ph.D. graduates is five years.

This means they will be allowed to sit for exams that are opened for fresh graduates to further their studies, and compete for posts at government agencies, public institutions and State-owned enterprises that are seeking fresh graduates.

Qiu Kenan, an official with the provincial education authorities, said under the previous policy, which took effect in 2003, students who could not find a job within two years of graduation had to apply for a certificate from their school to get a grace period.

“Without the certificate issued by universities that allows students to postpone their employment, graduates might lose job opportunities that are only available to fresh graduates. This has created issues incompatible with economic and social development. For this reason, the new policy is good news for students as they no longer have to worry about the hassle of applying for the certificate or the chance of missing certain job opportunities,” an unnamed teacher with the employment center of Shenzhen University told the Southern Metropolis Daily on Monday.

Recent years have seen a growing trend of graduates postponing employment. In Guangdong, the number of such graduates has remained around 50,000 each year, accounting for one-10th of the province’s total graduates the same year.

At the same time, the majority of graduates in Shenzhen have not chosen to walk into the workplace upon graduation. Instead, they prefer to study abroad, volunteer to teach in rural and remote areas in China, stay with their parents or prepare to start their own businesses, according to the Daily’s report.(Wang Jingli)