BEIJING - Participating in social practices is regarded as a necessary experience at college by nearly 64 percent of 1,674 Chinese students in a survey reported recently by China Youth Daily.

Popular at Chinese universities, social practice projects encourage students to work in groups to conduct fieldwork-like research instead of merely studying in classrooms or laboratories.

"I can have broader horizons, more courage and better social skills, and meet more interesting people through such activities," said Zhang Yalan, a freshman at a university in Shanghai.

Joining student organizations is also popular among Chinese college students as shown by the survey, as 60.6 percent of the students surveyed agreed that it is the experience needed most during their studies.

About 90 percent of the interviewees said they needed to carefully divide their time between study, work, rest and leisure to improve self-discipline at college, and 91.2 percent of the freshmen surveyed said they were planning to do so.