Beijing education authorities have given strict orders to universities to keep a lid on canteen food prices despite rising costs.
The Beijing Education Commission, which oversees more than 30 universities in the capital, said it had long ago ordered universities not to raise canteen food prices and recently stressed they should pay special attention to the issue in the face of soaring market prices.
'We told them that if you lose money on canteens, we will give you subsidies, but you just can't raise prices,' a spokesman said.
He denied the move was linked to a riot in a Guizhou high school triggered by a rise in canteen prices, but he said that the city government was on high alert regarding the impact of rising food costs on students.
'Many university students who study in Beijing are from poor or rural families and their lives will be greatly affected by price increases, which is the major concern of our policy,' he said. Across the mainland, higher food bills are cutting deeply into the budgets of the working poor. In large cities such as Beijing, some residents have seen prices for basics such as rice, cooking oil and vegetables jump day by day over the past few months.
High food prices have caught the attention of residents and ways to trim budgets have become hot topics online. One recommendation is for office workers to go to nearby universities for lunch.
Canteen food prices, ranging from a 40 fen (45 HK cents) bun to 30 fen porridge, have been kept unchanged since 2007, the last time serious inflation stalked the mainland. The education commission has been giving subsidies to universities and is now considering raising them.