‘Makes me sick’: China professor verbally abuses students, makes them clean flat, buy breakfast, help daughter cheat in exams
- Keeps students in lab 10 hours a day, even on holidays
- Open online complaint letter amasses 88 million views, is hit on trending list
A university professor in China has been suspended from teaching and tutoring after being accused of exploiting her students.
Zheng Feng, an associate professor at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), sparked widespread outrage on mainland social media when 15 of her students complained about her.
According to a detailed 23-page open letter posted on April 9, Zheng, who was teaching wireless communication and digital signal processing technology, gave students very little research guidance.
Instead, she expected them to buy her breakfast, clean her flat, pick up deliveries, drive her friends and family and help her daughter with homework and tests.
Students were even forced to cheat for Zheng’s daughter in exams and competitions.
The professor also kept students in the laboratory for more than 10 hours a day including during their holidays and expected them to attend meetings after 10pm every night.
If anyone complained, Zheng would threaten to kick them out of their research projects or delay their graduation.
“Teacher Zheng Feng treats us like slaves. More things unrelated to academic research are taking up our time, accompanied by endless insults and verbal abuse,” the open letter said.
Most of her students were diagnosed with mental health problems including anxiety and depression, the letter added.
The open letter quickly went viral. On Weibo alone, a hashtag related to the incident has amassed more than 88 million views and hit the top two on the trending topic list.
The university responded by disqualifying Zheng from tutoring and demoting her. The students affected were offered psychological counselling.
In January, another professor, Huang Feiruo at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, Hubei province, central China, was accused by 11 graduate and PhD students of academic fraud and exploitation. He was fired.
The cases have triggered a broader critique of the unequal power dynamics between university tutors and students.
In most higher education institutions in China, academic tutors directly assess graduate students’ grades, thereby holding significant leverage over their graduation qualification.
Some professors treat students like personal assistants and cheap labour.
BUPT’s swift action is seen as a positive step, but many believe that more systemic changes are needed.
“Who has not experienced a tutor who threatens you with not signing a pass on the graduation thesis?” one online observer said, adding: “Such experience looks so familiar to me. Even though I graduated almost a year ago, reading this makes me feel sick.”
“Tutors have too much power. When will this change?” another asked.
