China: Students riot demanding better diploma

Photos of the weekend riots posted on the Internet showed fires in debris-strewn school courtyards and glass smashed in offices, shops, car windows and a bank.

Photo: China: Students riot demanding better diploma

Students said police with water cannons had moved onto campus, but it wasn't clear if there had been any confrontation.

Talks with students Monday because their demands were unclear, and school officials insisted they had acted according to orders issued by the central government, said an official with the school's Communist Party committee.

The riots appeared to reflect the massive pressure Chinese students are under as they approach an increasingly competitive job market, the AP reports.

Many Chinese families go into massive debt to send their children to university. A huge expansion in higher education has led to white-hot competition for jobs, making the quality of a degree ever more important, the AP reports.

Students said they entered the Shengda Economics, Trade, and Management College after recruiters promised they would receive diplomas from the better-known Zhengzhou University, of which the college is a division.