Chinese University released an admission confirmation notice in midnight

It is not uncommon to see old Chinese people going to the market early in the morning to rob fresh vegetables and meat. Also, it is not uncommon to see employees of internet and information technology companies work till night; a practice known as “996”. However, recently a Chinese university in Suzhou found it in hot water on social media when netizens discovered that the university posted an admission confirmation notice at 4:00 am (when most applicants were sleeping) and gave them only 30 minutes to confirm their admission. The applicants who failed to respond “timely” were considered to waive their right to be admitted. In other words, the students who failed to get admission because of the university’s strange “policy” were themselves held responsible for not securing their admission “timely”.

On 7^th April, a netizen said that he received a notice from the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Suzhou University of Science and Technology at 4:30 am, which required confirmation within half an hour. The screenshot shows that the user was shown “你已拒绝该待录取通知” (you have rejected the pending offer of admission) at 7:58 am on 7^th April (see Figure 1). The post garnered such massive attention on Weibo (a Twitter-like Chinese social media website) that on 8^th April, the issue topped Weibo’s trending list. The issue also became popular on WeChat and Douyin (TikTok for China).

After a serious backlash on social media, at 16:43 (4:73 pm) on 8^th April, Suzhou University of Science and Technology (SUST) released a statement on Weibo presenting its version of the story (see Figure 2). According to this statement, “the School of Materials Science and Engineering finished online interviews of the candidates for the two masters programs of Materials Science and Engineering (0805) and Materials and Chemical Engineering (0856) at 2:00 am on 7^th April.” The statement further stated, “At 4:30 am on 7^th April, the School issued a notice to 49 candidates for admission and informed them individually through telephone as well. 10 of them gave up and were replaced by 10 candidates on the waiting list.” The School also apologized to the relevant candidates for the inconvenience.

The statement neither mentioned how those 10 candidates gave up nor commented on the 30-minute time slot given to them to confirm their admission. However, it did note that the last candidate was admitted at 9:46 am.

Even though the university has presented its version of the story, the netizens are divided on the case. While some have argued that the case represents how hard the university is working day and night, others have argued that such “desperate attempts to rob the cream” cannot be justified on ethical and moral grounds. One netizen commented on WeChat that “It’s not a question of inhumanity, it’s a question of fairness. It is obvious that if you know the operation of the school in advance, it is easy to squeeze out those who do not have the information” (see Figure 3). Thus, for every higher education institution that is fed on public taxes it is imperative that strict implementation of transparent procedures to fully protect the rights and interests of candidates.

Meanwhile, the dust from the SUST case is not yet fully settled when another case of another university in the same province has appeared online. On 4^th April, the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology’s Head of Economics Department posted a message in the WeChat group in which he announced the interviews of MBA applicants would take place at 1:00 am on 6^th April. When young teachers questioned the suitability of the time, a senior teacher replied “Please do not discuss this matter.” The matter was posted on a WeChat public account but the news was later deleted. It should be noted that April is the crucial month for the Chinese universities to rob young talent for their masters program.