(LI SHIGONG)

Huang Guitian, Assistant President of Peking University, denounced the necessity of internships for college students and called on a ban on student internships at a forum in May, saying that internships would negatively influence students. In his view, in the current job market, employers overemphasize the importance of graduates' internship and even neglect students' academic performance and morality, which gravely affects the normal teaching at school. He also said that according to a survey he conducted, 80 percent of the students do nothing but run errands during internships, and only a few of them get job offers in the end.

Huang's point of view sparked fierce debate on the Internet. While some say internships should be prohibited, others argue the internship system is necessary and just needs to be further rationalized and institutionalized. In an online vote on Sina's microblog, around 33.4 percent of more than 1,000 participants said that internships should be forbidden, because they mean nothing but running errands to students, and they will affect school work. About 26.1 percent of the participants think that internships are a necessary step for students to get to know society. Around 49 percent of the participants hold that even if interns just run errands, the working experience is still helpful to them so long as they make efforts to learn something.

The following are excerpts of some opinions.

Yang Yang (Sina Weibo): College students should make the goals of their internships clear. In other words, what do they expect to get from internships? First, making money is not the primary purpose. Second, an intern can get to know the working environment of a workplace. Third, an intern can learn the culture and working style of a company, such as the way of thinking and communication of employees there, so that he or she can adapt to it faster in the future. Fourth, employers will have a good impression of an excellent intern. Finally, student interns should remember that internships are not necessarily to improve their academic levels.

Zhang Chunwei (China National Radio): Outstanding interns can win themselves more opportunities or job offers. As employers, we can predict the future of the interns from how they deal with details. School courses do not teach you how to work with people, but your real experience accumulated in work will. Working experience can also teach us how to tell right from wrong. It is understandable that university students want a higher starting platform than others, but they need to prove that they deserve it. Thus, doing an internship is a good choice.

Zhao Ye (www.ifeng.com): Even running errands can be a way of self-improvement because students can take advantage of the opportunity to get to know how the company operates. It is understandable that some employers don't give interns important tasks as it is hardly possible for interns to accomplish the work well during the limited internship period. Therefore, I always tell my students: if you know how to learn from others and from your experience, you'll do better in your work. In this way, even if it is just running errands, it still means a lot to you.