University vows to help ‘postgraduate’

Fudan University said Sunday that it will offer employment help to a homeless man currently spending his days in nearby Ningbo, if it can be confirmed that he completed a postgraduate degree at the school two years ago.

The school was quoted by local media Sunday, after it was reported that a 33-year-old homeless man identified under pseudonym Xiao Wu was found injured at a factory by Ningbo police last month.

After Ningbo police helped send him to hospital and contacted his family, the man told authorities that although he was highly educated with a master's degree in computer science from Fudan University - and had previously worked as a civil servant in his hometown of Anhui Province - he had failed to land a job after graduating from Fudan University in January of 2009, less than two years after he claimed to have enrolled in the school's program.

He somehow ended up wandering the streets in Ningbo instead, he said.

Fudan University told local media Sunday that staff tried to get in touch with Ningbo police to obtain the real identity of the man, so the school could check whether his story was true.

But Ningbo police said that they could not release the information to the school, in order to protect the man's right to privacy.

Fudan University, however, added that it was unlikely the man was telling the truth, saying that it takes most students at least two years to complete the program.