Tee up the socially elite

Greetings,

From the "It Could Only Happen Here," file.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese university aiming to produce "socially elite" graduates is to make golf compulsory for students, state media reported on Tuesday.

Golf was once reviled in Communist China as a symbol of western decadence, but has become hugely popular among the newly affluent since the first golf course opened on the mainland in the early 1980s.

Students majoring in management, law, economics and software engineering at Xiamen University in China's southeastern Fujian province would be required to take a course in golf "to achieve their elite ambitions", the China Daily newspaper said.

"Golf is not only good exercise, but will teach students communication skills and benefit their future careers," the paper quoted the university's president Zhu Chongshi as saying.

"The highest embodiment of the education system is producing socially elite people with the best education."

Zhu said a bachelor's degree used to be respected but that higher education had grown into "an industry designed to fulfil market demand" and that there was a "need for elite education".

The university, which according to Zhu would open "a most beautiful" driving range in two months, had drawn some fire, the paper said.

"To try to make golf compulsory is rather vulgar," Alex Jin, president of the Centre for International Education Group, was quoted as saying.

"China can ill afford golf," Jin said, adding that some regions in China needed investment in better primary health care.

Peace.