Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Over 70,000, or 16.13 percent, of college students in Shanghai are from poverty-stricken families.  The ratio is a little lower than the national 20 percent, or 2.7 million, as gleaned from yesterday's seminar here on how to help needy students.
Officials and educators from over 70 colleges across the nation gathered at East China Normal University for the seminar, the Youth Daily reported.
In Shanghai, there are 73,000 college students from families earning a monthly income lower than 400 yuan per capita, of whom 35,000 families live under the city's poverty line of 295 yuan per capita a month, according to senior local education official Yong Tiehui.
In normal universities, such as ECNU, the ratio of needy students is higher at over 25 percent, with over 5,000 of the total 20,000 on the campus reporting a monthly family income lower than 300 yuan per capita, she noted.
To improve their finances, ECNU, like many other universities, is encouraging and creating part-time jobs as well as awarding scholarships, education loans and reducing the tuition fees, Yong added. 
In addition, universities are seeking effective long-term  mechanisms to help the needy students, expanding the focus from finance to other areas.
"Not only shall we help the students in terms of money, but also in terms of psychological development," Vice-Director Feng Gang, with the Social Science Research and Ideological Work Department of the Ministry of Education, pointed out.