College students who don’t work hard aren’t law breakers: observers

It is “legal” for college students to not study hard, legal experts said after social media held heated discussions on China’s education law.

A net user, Zhaoyang, recently posted on social media platform Zhihu that “it is illegal for college students not to study hard,” citing the 53rd clause of China’s Higher Education Law.

The law reads “higher education students should obey laws, regulations, as well as students’ behavior code and schools’ management regulations. They should respect teachers, study hard and improve their constitution.”

However, lawyers have rejected online speculation on how the law is interpreted.

Chang Sha, a Beijing-based lawyer, said there are no legal punishments in the clause for students who do not work hard in China’s Higher Education Law or related laws.

So legally speaking, the clause does not serve as a complete legal rule.

The provision merely aims to encourage, support or expect students who receive higher education to take “studying hard” as one of their obligations, said Chang.

A violation would not open students to legal punishment, and only result in poor grades or failure to graduate, Chang added.

Many net users on Sina Weibo joked that they just realized they had broken the law. Many others called for the country to revise such ambiguous clauses in the law.