'Treats us like slaves': China professor makes students clean flat, buy breakfast, help daughter cheat in exams

Her job as a university professor was to teach and mentor her students. 

Zheng Feng, an associate professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, not only did not do that, but she degraded and exploited them instead.

She was accused of abusing her power by 15 of her students in a 23-page open letter that was shared online on April 9, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. She has since been suspended from teaching and tutoring.

In the detailed expose, Zheng, who was teaching wireless communication and digital signal processing technology, is alleged to have made her masters students run errands for her such as buying breakfast, picking up deliveries as well as driving her friends and family.

She also got them to clean her flat and help her daughter with her homework.

Students were even forced to take exams for Zheng's daughter and participate in competitions on her behalf, local media reported. 

They revealed that the professor also made them work in the laboratory for more than 10 hours a day, including on holidays, and expected them to attend meetings after 10pm every night. 

"Teacher Zheng Feng treats us like slaves. More things unrelated to academic research are taking up our time, accompanied by endless insults and verbal abuse," the open letter said.

The students were initially afraid to come forward as Zheng threatened to kick them out of their research projects or delay their graduation.

Many students from her class were later diagnosed with mental health problems including anxiety and depression, according to local media. The affected students have been offered psychological counselling by the university.

The open letter, which spread like wildfire on Weibo, has amassed more than 88 million views and is among the social media platform's top two trending topics, SCMP reported.

“Who has not experienced a tutor who threatens you with not signing a pass on the graduation thesis?” a netizen wrote.

"The experience [sounds] so familiar to me. Even though I graduated almost a year ago, reading this makes me feel sick."

Another said: "Tutors have too much power. When will this change?"

The university took action against Zheng a day after the letter went online, by removing her as a tutor and demoting her from associate professor to lecturer.

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ashwini.balan@asiaone.com