Ding Tao(second from the left), a chengguan who has a master's degree, works with his colleagues to persuade a peddler near Shanghai's bustling Nanjing Road to move on. Huo Shijie/ For China Daily

More highly educated recruits are joining the ranks of China's chengguan, the urban management officers who have come in for criticism at times for violent law-enforcement tactics.

Eleven postgraduate students majoring in politics and law have received offers from the urban management division of Shanghai's Baoshan district, representing nearly 65 percent of those recruited this year.

This is mainly because it's the first time chengguan in the district have been considered civil servants, said a publicity officer for the division named Xu.

"It may not be surprising to see a greater number of highly educated people working as chengguan in the future because the position demands a bachelor's degree at least," Xu said.

Some of the new urban management officers will be assigned to offices, which require more professional work, although the majority will be dispatched to the front line to maintain order and cleanliness in the city.

Hu Zhenhua, director of the Shenzhen Academy of Urban Management, said city management is in need of high-quality personnel because more is involved than merely driving street vendors away.

"We have people with doctorates and post doctorates in some positions, such as streetlight management, landscape design, and electricity generation from waste incineration," he said. "There are more than 10 urban management officers with doctoral degrees in Shenzhen."

More young and well-educated people will also help change people's impression of chengguan, who have public accusations after repeated incidents of insulting and beating individuals in the line of duty.

Thousands of residents gathered in Qianxi county of Guizhou province on Aug 11 to protest the actions of a dozen urban management officials who surrounded and rudely treated a couple they had accused of illegally parking a car.

The officials involved were detained for violating legal proceedings.

In recent years, extreme cases have even led to deaths of chengguan and street vendors in some provinces, which showed tensions between residents and urban administration workers.

Some chengguan believed the tension is partly because their work requires them to target disadvantaged groups, which often receive sympathy from the public.

"Moreover, the arbitrary work style of some veterans destroyed the image of urban management workers, but the overall quality is improving," said Gu Wenyan, 27, who was one of the workers in Shanghai's Changning district two years ago.

Gu also said urban management officers deserve more respect from the public.

"Actually they have enforcement authority over more than 300 items in the city, including the management of commercial signs, construction regulations and noise, but their authority is often despised," he said.

Shi Yingying contributed to this story.

zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn