Peking University has unveiled plans for a program in which the university will offer consultations to broad categories of “troublesome” students. China Daily reports on the controversy surrounding the plan:
The program would concern 10 categories of students, including those who have a poor academic performance, are addicted to the Internet, come from poor families, have a severe disease, or have radical thoughts, according to a notice on the university’s website.
The focus is mainly on students who frequently fail exams or encounter difficulties in their studies, Zha Jing, deputy director of the university’s student work department, told the Beijing Evening News.
“We try to discover the reasons for students’ poor academic performance in order to help them successfully complete their courses,” Zha said.
Zha explained that students who are critical of the university’s management belong to what is defined under the policy as students with “radical thoughts”.
“For instance, some students criticized the university just because the food price in the canteen was raised by 2 jiao (3 cents),” Zha told the Beijing Evening News.
A trial of the program began in November and is nearing its end at the university’s Yuanpei College and Health Science Center.
Peking University is, of course, the home of a number of “radical” movements in Chinese history, including the New Culture Movement, May Fourth Movement and the 1989 Protests.
