From the Chinese press

Zero tolerance for plagiarism

A university teacher recently gave 91 undergraduate students zero score in their final papers for cheating. Many have criticized the teacher for being "excessively harsh" on the students, but such strictness should be encouraged in order to eradicate plagiarism from Chinese universities, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

University teachers are usually under pressure from different sources to at least give pass marks to students to save them from further trouble, because students who fail (let alone get zero) in a subject face a lot of problems in their academic career. For example, they can be denied scholarships or refused admission by a good overseas university. Also, a school will get a bad name if many of its students fail.