China's new residence permit/X Visa renewal regulations

Hi. I am a student currently in Shanghai but will be moving to another university in Zhejiang for this coming semester. My residence permit expires on the 20th of September and the school i got admitted to is stating that according to the laws i should have applied for my X renewal 30 days before my permit expires which means i should have applied before 20 August. Well the question is, is this really true about applying 30days before? and if it is, does anyone have any idea what i can do since my school is failing to help me with my application?