Chinese varsity may scrap expulsion-for-sex rule

Associated Press

Shanghai, July 18:

Regulation changes at an elite Shanghai university could signal an end to a longtime rule of Chinese higher education — expulsion for premarital sex. Instead, Fudan University will likely punish such students with warnings or negative reports in their student records, according to a report on the official China Daily newspaper’s web site. An article about the changes posted on Fudan’s campus Internet bulletin board said today warnings would be given for premarital sex. Engaging in prostitution or visiting prostitutes would result in expulsion, it said. The report said school officials have declined to comment. Calls to the university’s student administration office rang unanswered today. The changes were prompted by Education Ministry reforms, issued in March, that aim to eliminate random punishments and rules that conflict with the law or constitution. The new rules take effect in September, after classes resume.