BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese universities are not allowed to dispel pregnant students, but have to help settle residential registration for students' babies, according to a government circular.

The circular advised female students to "temporarily suspend schooling during childbearing period" in order to "ensure the health of mother and child".

The circular, jointly released by the National Population and Family Planning Commission and ministries of education and public security, clarified procedures to settle down the residential registration for students' new-born babies.

Student couples can register babies with the residence of grandparents and re-register them with their own residence after graduation, it said. College students still can look after babies at school.

College students in China usually have temporary school residence before graduation and employment that decides their final residence.

The Ministry of Education lifted the ban of marriage and childbearing in universities on Oct. 1, 2003, but there was for long no regulation from police department defining Hukou, or registered permanent residence, for students' children.

Teachers and parents still discourage students from marriage before graduation, as most students are not financially prepared to simultaneously handle study, marriage and babies.