Students lash out at Zhai with social media hashtag

College students in China who will graduate in June are complaining about actor Zhai Tianlin on social media, after his high-profile plagiarism case prompted universities to implement stricter requirements for their graduation dissertations.

The hashtag "Zhai Tianlin" was a trending topic in Sina Weibo on Monday, with many students roasting Zhai for making it harder for them to graduate.

"It's 2 am. Zhai Tianlin, have you fallen asleep yet? I haven't. My classmates and I are busy making changes to our dissertations. Do you want to join us?" one netizen wrote.

"The school has lowered the similarity requirement for graduation dissertations from 20 percent last year to 5 percent this year, all thanks to you," said another.

"Thank God I graduated last year, otherwise it would be very difficult for me to graduate," said yet another.

Some students have praised Zhai for inadvertently improving the quality of China's higher education — by prompting education authorities and universities to hold graduates to a higher standard.

The academic misconduct case has shed light on the lack of supervision of academic writing among postgraduate students. Zhai, who was found guilty, has been stripped of his doctoral degree at Beijing Film Academy. Peking University has also removed Zhai from its postdoctoral research program.

The Ministry of Education has asked universities with advanced degree programs to strengthen their supervision of student enrollment and management after a few high-profile academic misconduct cases tarnished the reputation of the country's postgraduate education.

The ministry has zero tolerance for academic misconduct, such as plagiarism, and universities should scrutinize every step of graduate writing, from choosing research topics to dissertation defense.