Psychological concern

The dark and disturbing scenes reminiscent of suspense novels on campus provoke concerns over university students' psychological health and the education system.

These extreme cases do not indicate that college students' psychological health is poor in general, said Zhang Jiming, a psychological counselor at Beijing Normal University. He said that such extreme cases take place from time to time in other social groups, only they may not attract as much attention from the media.

College students' overall psychological health is better than the national average, said Yuan Xin, Director of the Psychological Guidance Center at Nankai University in Tianjin, citing that data from the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center indicate only 0.32 percent of college students have psychological illnesses, which is significantly below the national level of 5 percent.

Yuan said that although the overall incidence of serious violence on campus is small, nonetheless the aggressiveness among college students exhibited in such cases should raise alarm.

Huang Hongji, Director of the Shanghai Youth Research Institute, said that it is time to ruminate about the higher education system. According to him, due to rapid increases in university enrollment in recent years, students receive too little individual attention, so their psychological problems may not be identified and addressed soon enough.

But Zhang said that universities should not be blamed for all the psychological problems of their students.

He argued that college students' psychological illness may have taken root during their middle school years or childhood. "The current education system is exam-oriented. So many middle schools tend to put grades above everything else and neglected moral education," said Zhang. "Students, who are used to measuring their value by grades, may suffer from psychological problems once they encounter academic setbacks in universities.

Some students, mostly only children, have grown up overprotected, and are relatively egotistical and competitive, and less tolerant and resilient to frustrations, according to Yuan.

Now in Chinese universities, students are assigned to dormitories, so they cannot choose their own roommates. Those who may be accustomed to their own private rooms at home must live under the same roof with other students and have to take care of cleaning chores and split utility costs. Their youthful tempers may flare up due to these trivial matters.

On April 18, two days after Huang's death, a trivial matter also cost the life of an undergraduate at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in neighboring Jiangsu Province. The victim was stabbed to death by his roommate, who was furious because the victim failed to answer the suspect's knocks on the door. The victim was allegedly engrossed in computer games when the suspect returned to their shared dormitory room.

Chinese society has come to value success more than morality, said Xiong Bingqi, Deputy Director of the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute.

"If a student lacks an understanding of their duties to society, he or she might use extreme methods to solve some difficulties in life," Xiong told Xinhua News Agency. He calls for greater attention to psychological and moral education for students.

A survey conducted by the Psychological Consulting and Development Center of Shanghai Normal University shows that a third of college students' psychological problems involve conflicts with roommates and classmates.

Students come from various places in the country, bringing with them different cultures, habits, customs and social values, which may give rise to clashes, according to Li Zhengyun, Director of the Psychological Consulting and Development Center of Shanghai Normal University, and Ye Bin, former Director of the Psychological Consulting Center of East China Normal University.

On the other hand, students are subject to intense academic competition, which is also a potential source of strife, they said.

Yuan warned some serious psychological problems are not self-healing, so students need professional counseling.

After the poisoning case, Fudan University has expanded its mental health services to students and faculty, said Fang.

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