SHANGHAI: Soon after one student catches a cold, sniffles and sneezes are heard in every classroom, and not just at kindergartens - universities are also hotbeds for germs.

Shanghai Jiaotong University recently carried out a survey on the lifestyles and health conditions of students at eight universities, and the results showed that many students are in "sub-healthy states", suffering from bad sleep and a lack of physical exercise.

"If one student catches a cold, many more will end up getting infected," said Bonnie Zheng, a junior college student. "When we are called upon to donate blood, many people don't want to because they don't really feel healthy enough."

Only 34 percent of the 1,500 students surveyed considered themselves to be healthy. More than half of them said they believed they were in poor health.

"About a third of my classmates are busy preparing for post-graduate programs abroad," Sophia Miao, a junior at Shanghai University of International Studies, told China Daily.

Many students study for a second degree and some even go after a third in order to improve their chances of finding work in a competitive job market.

The survey showed that students majoring in sciences end up shouldering a heavier academic burden than their peers in the liberal arts. Some said they felt like they were studying as hard as they did in their final days of senior middle school. Nearly half of the surveyed students said their physical health had declined since they went to college.

More than half of the surveyed students complained that they were sleeping poorly. Eighty percent said it took them an hour or even longer before they could fall asleep at night. Some said they played computer games, while others watched movies on their computers late into the night. Some also said they stayed up all night studying before important exams.

Such unhealthy lifestyles are now common among students.

One student reportedly stayed up playing computer games at an Internet caf. Eventually, his supervisor tracked him down and took him back to school.

"He was semi-conscious when I picked him up," the supervisor, surnamed Dong, said about the young man.

Zheng said: "We are required to run 800 m at least 10 times every semester."

She added that she did not do any additional exercise.

Male students were slightly better off because they arranged the occasional football or basketball game, but women tend to agree that the best leisure was "to have a nice sleep".

More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they loved sports, but few exercised outside of the required sessions.

"We just punch the card for PE classes and don't do any more exercise," Miao said.

Many universities have gyms but few students make use of these facilities.

"We are not aware of them, I guess," Zheng said.

"We eat poorly, too," said Pu Shanying, a student from East China University of Science and Technology.

Students at that school have posted pictures on the campus website showing cockroaches that had been found in food from the campus canteen. They also showed large steamed buns with very little filling.

"It's common knowledge that we should be cautious and not drink milk from the canteen on exam days," Pu said. "You don't want to have a stomach ache at that time."

"We are too young to realize the importance of good health," Miao said. "We sleep late, eat lots of barbecued food and drink Coke, so our poor health is natural."

(China Daily 07/23/2007 page2)