Thousands of students from at least two dozen universities in Hong Kong are boycotting their classes this week to protest against China's restrictive proposal on how the special administrative region should elect its chief executive in 2017.

Organizers estimate that at least 13,000 students and 400 academics and non-teaching staff are participating in the protest held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Sha Tin.

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The week-long campaign, which begun Monday, includes classroom strikes, public lectures, downtown protests and mass gatherings, according to The Straits Times Asia.

Beginning Tuesday, the students, led by the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism, will stage a series of protests at the Tamar Park which is near to the government's headquarters in Admiralty.

Frustration with Beijing's policy in Hong Kong is especially deep among the youth, observed The New York Times. China's refusal in August to grant the special administrative district electoral reforms has jolted previously apolitical students to take up the cause of universal suffrage.

Although the students protesting this week were toddlers when China took over the government of Hong Kong, teenage students as young as 14 have been arrested for staging civil disobedience for the democracy fight.

Joshua Wong, the 17-year-old founder of the Scholarism group, told Bloomberg that universal suffrage is the mission of the young people of Hong Kong.

Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a student leader at Lingnan University, told The New York Times that university students must take it upon themselves to shoulder the responsibility of their era.

High school students are planning to join the class boycott for one day later this week.

The academics who have enlisted their support for the student activists have earlier petitioned their colleagues to not let the "striking students stand alone."

Those who have expressed support for student activism reportedly include political conservatives who initially believed that genuine democracy can be gained through constructive dialogues.

Some Hong Kong academics have also pledged to post lectures online for the student activists.

The demonstration is seen as a prelude to the massive sit-in planned by the pro-democracy Occupy Central movement on October 1.

The group pledged to flood the city's financial district with demonstrators in a showdown with the central government for its refusal to deliver the promise of greater democracy as laid out during the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.

Critics say the October 1 rally will likely shut the city's financial district, reported BBC.

TagsHong Kong pro-democracy, Hong Kong, sit-in protest, Occupy Central movement, education, Politics of Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong