Debra Li

debra_lidan@163.com

A YOUNG man recently made headlines in Chinese media after he won a lawsuit against his alma mater and college instructor, pointing to a solution for students who encounter injustice within the educational system.

Meng Yupeng, who graduated from Hubei University of Science and Technology in 2015, discovered by chance in 2021 that his tutor at the school Ye Huashan, together with then dean of his department and two others, had applied patents for a non-invasive glucometer based on his bachelor’s degree thesis without his knowledge or consent. A landmark decision by the Hubei Provincial Higher People’s Court on Nov. 1 granted Meng 150,000 yuan (US$20,500) in damages and covered his legal expenses, validating the infringement of his intellectual property rights.

Despite the apparent evidence favoring Meng, as the patent application documents submitted by Ye were almost identical to his thesis, it took the victim two long years and a lot of energy to go through the proceedings. At one point, the young man had to quit his job to focus on the case. To this day, Ye has not given his aggrieved student a formal apology.

This case underscores the inequity in the power dynamics between educators and students. Comparable to the asymmetry in the doctor-patient relationship, the authority wielded by educators significantly impacts their students, often leaving the latter with little recourse in the face of wrongdoing.

That explains why many students choose to swallow their anger and pride in face of injustice from their teachers. Graduate students in Chinese universities tend to call their tutors “the boss,” as they work for little to no payment to contribute to the teachers’ research.

Previous media reports also revealed that some teachers treated their students as personal assistants, obliging them to perform menial tasks both on campus and within their households.

Coincidentally, a thesis by a graduate student from East China Normal University submitted in 2017, the year Ye plagiarized Meng’s thesis, echoes the complexities of the student-teacher relationship.

That thesis has been downloaded for more than 40,000 times on www.cnki.net, an online database for academic research.

Recounting the difficulties a student had encountered after falling out with her tutor, the thesis went viral among Chinese students, who read it like “fiction about ourselves,” in the words of one student.

Although the Chinese education authorities published in 2018 a set of guidelines for college teachers, prohibiting plagiarism and the exploitation of professional relationships for personal gain, the absence of robust oversight renders these guidelines toothless.

Consequently, students encountering injustices hesitate to file complaints against their educators, apprehensive of potential retaliation.

Had Meng’s university proactively instituted a platform for lodging complaints and addressing grievances, it would have alleviated his ordeal and prevented the tarnishing of its own reputation.

Colleges in other countries, such as Northwestern University in the United States and University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, have introduced an independent office of the ombudsperson to handle complaints from students and staff and conduct investigations.

Meng’s legal triumph should embolden Chinese students, traditionally taught to defer to authority, by showcasing the efficacy of legal recourse in addressing injustices.

However, a sustained aspiration remains for Chinese universities to build mechanisms that guarantee a just and nurturing learning milieu for their students.

Independent oversight could offer a viable avenue in this pursuit, fostering accountability and fairness within academic communities.

(The author is a Features editor of Shenzhen Daily.)