A student bride prepares for her wedding at Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management in Zhengzhou, Henan province. [SHA ZI/CHINA DAILY]

Multiple challenges

The problems may not end there. University couples who marry face a wide range of other challenges, from setting a common goal for life to how to understand and tolerate each other.

This calls for young couples to address the situation with some skill and wisdom, according to Zhou.

"But young undergraduates are immature and lack enough experience to handle such issues, which may lead to a marriage crisis or even divorce," she said.

A Chongqing resident, who asked to be identified as Xiao-her surname-said her university marriage failed for this reason. The 28-year-old married a man two years older than her in 2009, when she was a junior student at a university in Chongqing.

"He was a cousin of my roommate at the university," she said. "He treated me well and cared for me a lot. I was moved, and agreed to marry him."

But the marriage lasted for just six months. At the beginning of the fourth year at university, the woman ended the unhappy union, saying it resulted from pressure imposed by her husband.

"He would make repeated telephone calls to me when I hung out with friends to ensure that I was not with a man. We quarreled a lot over this," Xiao said, adding that her former husband had not behaved like this before they married.

Because of her experience, Xiao has a negative view of undergraduates marrying while at college, saying, "As undergraduates, they are too young to understand marriage."