On Jan 8, the Department of Industrial Engineering at Tsinghua University published a notice announcing the dismissal of a US student studying in the department who applied for a six-month leave of absence in March 2023. He was supposed to resume studies in the fall semester of that year, but he did not return to the university and by December the university had still not been able to contact him.

The case has aroused a lot of attention, but a glimpse into media reports will find it's not the first time a domestic university has dismissed an international student for nonattendance. As early as 2017, Wuhan University dismissed a number of foreign students, including undergraduates and graduates, because they did not register within the stipulated period. In April 2020, Shanghai Jiao Tong University also dismissed a number of foreign students for similar reasons.

All these cases make clear that university regulations apply to both domestic and foreign students. Some domestic universities used to apply looser standards for international students considering their difficulties in studying in the Chinese language, but that practice has declined in recent years.

The principle of equal standards for all and strict enforcement of that principle will certainly benefit the nation's higher education sector. As an ancient Chinese saying goes, strict teaching makes excellent students. That still applies today, to both domestic and international students equally.