As of Monday evening, 17 Chinese provinces and municipalities, including Anhui, Shanghai, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Henan and Shaanxi, had announced the planned opening time of their colleges and universities.

The risks surrounding imported cases of COVID-19 have put a lot of pressure on colleges and universities, some of which in areas with imported cases have notified students to not return as yet.

Some Chinese-foreign joint ventures have abandoned the start of the semester altogether and moved all courses online.

People are very concerned about the information on the opening of universities and colleges. The news that 17 provinces and municipalities have set dates for the opening of their universities has drawn great attention on social media.

The message has been read more than 110 million times, and netizens shared different views. Some students said that the online course is good enough and do not want to start school, while others are looking forward to returning to campus.

Schools making arrangements for opening also say they will have strict epidemic prevention measures.

(Top image: Students of a university in Nanjing. /VCG)