A prestigious university yesterday expelled 28 doctoral students who had been studying for more than nine years.

Heads at Tianjin-based Nankai University took the action after they failed to hand in dissertations on time, despite earlier warnings.

Most of them were on the job students majoring in liberal arts or social sciences.

Each of them will receive a course-completion certificate instead of a graduation certificate and doctoral degree.

"This is a substantial measure to standardize our administration and ensure the quality of doctoral students," said Li Jing, vice-dean of the university's graduate school.

"We want to send a clear signal that Nankai University has no places for those who stay idle."

Li said it was the first time the university had expelled a batch of doctoral students because of the length of their studies.

"It might also be the first time in the history of China's higher education that so many doctoral students are deprived of degrees at one time," Li said.

Li said the university sent notifications to each of the students 18 months ago, informing them the deadline to submit a doctoral dissertation would be in April this year.

According to Li, the Ministry of Education released a regulation in March 2005, stipulating that it was for each university to decide the length of schooling.

Li pointed out it was not uncommon in the past for some doctoral students to prolong their schooling again and again.

The university made a regulation last year, prescribing a doctoral student's period of schooling to be "three to four years, and no more than six years."

"We provide doctoral students a flexible timetable to encourage them to carry out serious scientific research and achieve fruitful results," Li said.

"But we expect them to finish doctoral programmes in three or four years.

"If schooling goes on too long, it means a heavy burden for both the university and students themselves."

Wu Zhicheng, a doctoral tutor and a professor in international relations at the university, said he fully agreed with the decision. "Those students who fail to finish their studies on time are either distracted or incompetent academically, and so it is a fair decision."

He added the decision would help to safeguard the prestige of the university.

Liu Feng, a full-time doctoral student in the Zhou Enlai School of Government, said he and most of his classmates supported the decision.

Liu said under normal conditions, a doctoral student can finish all the courses in the first year and start working on their dissertation in the second.

"I think two years is an adequate period of time to work out a doctoral dissertation if you work hard enough," Liu said.

In China, it is generally believed that a student will receive a degree once accepted into university.

Most people think competition for admission is much more difficult than graduating.

Founded in 1919, Nankai University is one of the key universities under the Ministry of Education.

(China Daily April 28, 2006)