Report: Students riot at China military academy
1:00 AM
Posted: Friday, November 30, 2007
BEIJING (AP) -- Civilian students at a Chinese military academy smashed windows and clashed with authorities in protest over reports their diplomas would not be recognized in the increasingly cutthroat job market, a radio station reported Friday.
A duty officer at the People's Liberation Army Artillery Academy in the eastern city of Hefei said violent protests broke out on Wednesday, but refused to give his name or say what sparked the unrest.
He said calm had returned by Thursday afternoon and some students had returned to class on Friday morning. He denied that any students had been injured, but wouldn't say whether any had been detained or expelled.
Radio Free Asia, a private broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress, said the campus disturbances were led by activists among self-funded students who are not military cadets and have not been accepted into formal degree-earning programs at the school.
Police and military officers sent to calm the situation were driven out amid clashes that left several people beaten and bloody, the report said.
Accounts posted online by relatives of students at the school said students had been rousted from their beds and interrogated early in the morning following Wednesday's disturbances.
The accounts said that while students were able to gain admission with relatively low scores on the national college entrance exam, their families were required to pay placement fees totaling around $5,400 in addition to tuition of $1,190 per year -- about double that charged by similar schools.
Altogether, costs associated with completing the four-year program constituted a huge burden on most parents, the reports said. Such practices reflect broader concerns over families going deep into debt to fund their children's education to give them a step up amid surging numbers of job applicants.
Similar complaints have sparked scattered rioting on other campuses, along with other unrest blamed on high fees and primitive living conditions.
RFA said students began breaking windows and destroying furniture on Wednesday after word spread that their diplomas would not be recognized either by the Defense Ministry or the Education Ministry.
A duty officer at the People's Liberation Army Artillery Academy in the eastern city of Hefei said violent protests broke out on Wednesday, but refused to give his name or say what sparked the unrest.
He said calm had returned by Thursday afternoon and some students had returned to class on Friday morning. He denied that any students had been injured, but wouldn't say whether any had been detained or expelled.
Radio Free Asia, a private broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress, said the campus disturbances were led by activists among self-funded students who are not military cadets and have not been accepted into formal degree-earning programs at the school.
Police and military officers sent to calm the situation were driven out amid clashes that left several people beaten and bloody, the report said.
Accounts posted online by relatives of students at the school said students had been rousted from their beds and interrogated early in the morning following Wednesday's disturbances.
The accounts said that while students were able to gain admission with relatively low scores on the national college entrance exam, their families were required to pay placement fees totaling around $5,400 in addition to tuition of $1,190 per year -- about double that charged by similar schools.
Altogether, costs associated with completing the four-year program constituted a huge burden on most parents, the reports said. Such practices reflect broader concerns over families going deep into debt to fund their children's education to give them a step up amid surging numbers of job applicants.
Similar complaints have sparked scattered rioting on other campuses, along with other unrest blamed on high fees and primitive living conditions.
RFA said students began breaking windows and destroying furniture on Wednesday after word spread that their diplomas would not be recognized either by the Defense Ministry or the Education Ministry.
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