Teacher banned from recruiting postgrads following student suicide

Central China’s Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) posted on Sunday on its official Sina Weibo that it has disqualified one of its teachers from recruiting postgraduates after one of his students committed suicide.

Tao Chongyuan, 25, was a postgraduate student under the instruction of Wang Pan, the vice-director of the System Science and Engineering Research Center at the university. Tao jumped from the rooftop of his dormitory and died on March 26, The Beijing News reported.

Tao had been a member of Wang’s Control and Decision (C&D) laboratory. Wang used a tough military style with his students, putting immense mental pressure on them, a classmate Liu Chen told the media.

“I feel like collapsing. I don’t know how to get rid of teacher Wang,” Tao complained to his mother before his death.

Tao returned to the dormitory after his mother told him to stick with the course. Some minutes later, Tao was found lying dead on the ground.

In late 2014, Tao cancelled his application for postgraduate study at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, as Wang wanted him to stay at WUT and promised to recommend him for a PhD course in the US.

However, Wang reneged on his promise in autumn 2017 when Tao was in his third year as a postgraduate. Tao was later kicked out of the C&D laboratory.

Wang often required Tao to buy and deliver meals to his residence, and also forced Tao to call him “Dad”, according to screen grabs of the messages between them.

The WUT post confirmed that Wang’s conduct was unrelated to scientific research, but denied the claim that Wang obstructed Tao from applying as a postgraduate to another university and demanded students do his housework.