JIANGSU UNIVERSITY in Zhenjiang, East China's Jiangsu province, recently disqualified 21 students from receiving subsides intended for impoverished students based on their monthly mobile phone payments. Beijing News commented on Monday:

Unlike Nanjing University of Science and Technology that used students' monthly consumption in the university canteen to distinguish those who needed financial support, what Jiangsu University did is slightly more controversial because phone fees say little about a student's financial situation.

Of course, screening students from poor families by collecting information about their daily consumption may be less likely to embarrass them, as happened in the past when applications for financial support were often disclosed for public scrutiny.

However, the use of big data, which only applies to how much the applicants spend during a certain period of time, is still unable to identify whether students are from rich or poor families.

In comparison, college students in developed economies do not have to go through "campaigns" or appraisals to receive subsidies; all they need to provide is evidence of family income and taxes, which is very rarely forged. A fake application is usually easily identified and will become an indelible stain on a student's record.

Things are different in many Chinese colleges, which do require students to provide verified information about their family's income. In some cases, students (sometimes assisted by their family) choose to forge a certificate that can hardly be checked so they can masquerade as an impoverished student.

To efficiently use big data to identify those students who really need help, universities must be very careful not to infringe upon their legal interests or selectively collect their information.

In addition, they can resort to alumni and local governments to get a better idea about the family circumstances of a student. Such information should also apply to the future enrollment of "impoverished students". To further prevent fraudulent applications for the exclusive subsidies, the country should keep improving the nationwide credit investigation system.