BEIJING, June 27 -- Nearly 90 per cent of parents expect their children to receive a university education or better in Shanghai.

    Researchers from the Youth Research Centre under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) interviewed 3,000 local families, most of them with children in primary and middle schools.

    Around 89.5 per cent said they hope their children will graduate from universities with bachelor's degrees or higher qualifications although the city's 2000 census showed that only around one in every 10 citizens had college education or higher qualifications.

    "A bachelor's degree is the basic requirement for someone to get a decent job," said Gary Gu, who has a five-year-old son. He added it would be a failure for the family if his son did not finish college.

    However, parents generally have higher expectations for sons than daughters.

    Among the parents interviewed, more than half hoped their sons got a master's degree.

    "I think my son should at least have a master's degree, otherwise he won't find a good job a bachelor's degree is not enough," said He Jianzhen.

    However Chen Jun, who has a daughter, admitted that there were lower expectations for girls due to a social environment that puts more pressure on men than women.

    "Girls are different. They are not expected to be so successful in their careers like boys," said Chen.

    SASS researcher Yang Xiong said Shanghai residents had fully realized the importance of education and knowledge.

    "People can become successful through their efforts as society becomes more open," Yang was quoted by Shanghai Morning Post saying.

    He also put down the higher expectations on boys to the lingering remnants of the former "male-dominant" society.

    However, some experts warn that parents' high expectations put too much pressure on children and can lead to mental problems such as depression.

    "Parents' primary concern should be the healthy growth of their children," said local doctor Fu Linglan, criticizing parents who rested their own unrealized dreams on their children's shoulders.

    The survey also shows that parents who were only children prefer developing their career to having children.

    Only 53 per cent of such parents consider having children an indispensable part of life, much lower than parents with siblings.