China to set up university for elderly to cope up with ageing population

Chinese President Xi Jinping has decided to set up National University for the Aged to cope up with the rapidly ageing society and declining fertility.

The university will function under the state-run Open University of China, according to a notice issued by China's Ministry of Education on Thursday.

The curriculum for the students, aged 60 or above, will range from foreign languages, computer skills, music and dance to photography, painting, sports, cooking and other crafts and skills, the Global Times, Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece tabloid, reported.

The announcement comes a month after the Chinese leader demanded that Beijing “implement a national strategy to actively cope with ageing”.

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, there are more than 267 million people in China aged 60 or older as of 2021, accounting for 18.9 per cent of China's total population.

This figure is expected to increase in the coming decades, with the population of aged 60 and above believed to rise to 400 million by 2035, accounting for 30 per cent of the total population.

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The United Nations expects China’s population to start shrinking from next year, with India likely becoming the world’s most populous country.

For decades, China had strictly enforced the one-child policy in the 1980s. It had to end this draconian policy in 2015, afterfertility rate started to decline rapidly.

In 2021, China’s fertility rate was 1.16, way below the 2.1 OECD standard for a stable population.

Amidst concerns over the prospect of an ageing society, China has been encouraging couples to have more children by enticing them with tax breaks and cash handouts, apart from generous maternity leave, medical insurance and housing subsidies.

But experts say that these measures are not enough to convince people, who have been grappling with high education costs, low wages and notoriously long working hours, along with frustration over Covid curbs and the overall state of the economy, Reuters news agency reported.

(With inputs from agencies)

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