Hebei Normal University has recently been under scrutiny after a female student from the School of Physical Education, Nean Hongli, publicly accused the dean of the school of misconduct and coercion, claiming that she was forced to write the graduation thesis for international students, which has once again sparked controversy.
In a video she posted online, Nean Hongli accused the dean Ma Jian of abusing his power, engaging in misconduct, and pressuring her to write graduation theses for international students, along with other acts of violations of laws and regulations.
Nean Hongli also mentioned that the doctoral thesis of an international student named Charbat in her defense did not meet the standards set by the School of Physical Education, yet he was awarded the graduation certificate and degree.
She explained, “Because Charbat, as an international student, lacked proficiency in writing in Chinese, the school and advisor allowed me to help him with the thesis. However, at the end, he obtained a doctoral degree while I did not.”
According to Nean Hongli, in December 2022, she successfully defended her doctoral thesis despite initially being told it did not meet the standards for the defense. The school acknowledged the quality of her thesis, stating that it met the requirements for a doctoral graduate.
Nean Hongli provided a recording of a phone call with the school from 2023, where an official confirmed that Charbat had received his doctoral degree.
She explained that as a student studying away from home, she felt pressured to comply with the orders of the school and advisor in assisting Charbat with his thesis. She enlisted the help of several master’s students from the 2016 class to aid Charbat in revising his thesis, taking on tasks such as rewriting sections, integrating content, and reducing plagiarism.
On September 2, Ma Jian, the dean of the School of Physical Education at Hebei Normal University, responded by dismissing Nean Hongli’s claims as completely fabricated.
The news has sparked discussions among netizens, with some expressing beliefs like, “It’s definitely believable. After all, offending foreigners is not something to be taken lightly, and the backbone of our nation has long been broken. There’s not much we can do other than bow and beg for mercy.”
Hebei Normal University, located in Shijiazhuang, is a provincial key university jointly established by the Hebei Provincial Government and the Ministry of Education. The university consists of 23 schools, including the School of Physical Education, College of International Cultural Exchange, and the Marxist College.
As of March 2024, Hebei Normal University has established partnerships with over 200 foreign universities and is involved in various educational programs and language teaching initiatives with more than 40 countries.
In June 2021, the university faced controversy over the arrangement of female companions for foreign students, which led to public debate. The allocation of one or two female Chinese students to accompany male international students in the classroom raised eyebrows and drew comparisons to a similar incident at another university in Shandong.
The special treatment of foreign students by the Chinese Ministry of Education in recent years has been a subject of widespread dissatisfaction in Chinese society. Foreign students are offered high scholarships, reduced admission thresholds, better living conditions than domestic students, and various conveniences in terms of studying and exams.
According to official data released by the Chinese Ministry of Education, in 2017, there were nearly 500,000 foreign students studying in Chinese higher education institutions across 31 provinces and 935 universities. The budget allocated for international student education in China in 2018 exceeded 3.3 billion RMB, with many foreign students enjoying comfortable living conditions and even sending surplus funds back to their home countries.
Aside from receiving various privileges at Chinese universities, foreign students also benefit from the “study buddy” arrangement where the school provides special provisions for interaction between international students and Chinese students of the opposite sex on campus.
When the scandal involving female companions at Shandong University erupted in 2019, an internal document from the university revealed that similar buddy systems were not exclusive to Shandong University but were also present in many other universities like Nanjing University, Jilin University, Northeast Normal University, Sun Yat-sen University, and Harbin Institute of Technology. These practices were said to align with the Ministry of Education’s encouragement of promoting exchanges between Chinese and foreign students.