Two of China's well-known universities in Shanghai are involved in a fierce controversy over alleged dirty tricks to poach the best students for their institutions, Xinhuanet reported Sunday.
A war of words on the internet arose on July 1 following Fudan University's public statement on its website accusing teachers from one of Shanghai's universities of pretending to be from Fudan and trying to persuade students to change their applications to their university.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University later also issued a statement on its official microblog denying this allegation and saying that enrollment is carried out publicly and fairly.
Students received fake calls
Wang Mian (alias), a student from southern China's Yunnan Province told the Guangzhou Daily that he had been designated as an "excellent graduate" by Fudan University before "gaokao," the Chinese college entrance examination. According to an agreement with the university, if Wang applied for Fudan, he could obtain an extra ten points once passing the university's bottom line in Yunnan.
After the gaokao scores were announced, Wang received two suspicious calls before submitting his application. "One claimed that she was a teacher from Fudan University. She told me my agreement with Fudan was invalid," Wang told the newspaper. "Another teacher from Fudan University called me later and suggested that I change my choice to the other Shanghai-based university. She said I could also enjoy the extra ten points if I applied for that university," added Wang.
Although Wang doubted the calls, he revised his application under time pressures, according to the Guangzhou Daily.
It seems that Wang was not the only student to receive such calls. It happened first in Shanxi Province, according to a teacher in charge of the enrollment work at Fudan University. A student said he received many calls from people who claimed they were teachers at Fudan, inquiring about his assessment marks and urging him to revise his application.
Moreover, Fudan University also received many calls from students in Guangdong, Yunnan, and Hubei Provinces, asking whether their earlier agreements with the university were still valid. "We had to issue a public statement to prevent more students from being deceived," said Xu Hongbo, an official from the university's enrollment office.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University denies the allegation
Although Fudan's statement did not mention the name of the university, netizens said it alluded to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, another prestigious school in Shanghai.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University later released a statement on its microblog which denied the allegation. The university respects students' choices on their application, the statement said. The university also claimed that the media reports surrounding this issue hurt their reputation badly and that it "reserves the right to take full legal actions."
The two statements triggered a war of words online. Discussions and disputes about the two high-ranking universities continue.
What caused the fight?
The "fight" highlighted the chaotic and fierce competition among Chinese universities as excellent students are becoming scarce resources, the People's Daily said Monday.
Under the Chinese university application system, students can only receive one offer. The number of top students has become an important benchmark for determining the ranking of domestic universities, says the Shanghai Daily.
However, increasing competition from overseas universities, plus the decrease in babies born in the 1990s, has made the competition for top students become fiercer, education experts say. Hong Kong University this year attracted 11 top students from various mainland provinces, almost twice the number last year. Meanwhile, more Chinese families are sending their children abroad to study in the United States and Australia.
The Shanghai Daily said the municipality reported a record low number of National College Entrance Exam applicants this year. Less than 61,000 people took the college entrance exam, down from 66,000 last year.
On the other hand, universities' worship of "excellent students" is only an extension of their worship of scores, said the People's Daily. While school reputations and local government education achievements are closely related to the number of students attending top universities, universities consider the enrollments as the end point of basic education, causing them to poach talented students.
Shen Hongbo, a doctor of economics, believes that only further reforms of the university application system can stop such kinds of fights. Shen urged authorities to increase the flexibility of the application system which would better balance the benefits between the students and universities. He also suggested publicizing the "secret agreements" between students and universities and that students should be able receive several acceptance offers from different universities.
