Highly intensive work, overtime shifts and terrible working conditions. This is what junior students from Liaocheng University in east China’s Shandong Province were forced to do as part of their internship as workers in the assembly lines in the factories of Kunshan Konka Electronic Corporation and Suzhou Qiada Corporation.

According to China National Radio (CNR), this incident first came to light when a student from Liaocheng University posted an “SOS” message on Chinese social media platform Weibo. “I’ve been thinking about dying several times after my university forced me to do my internship for a week,” the student wrote. Other students also reflected that the highly intensive work had caused them to be ill, and even get blisters and calluses on their hands.

Students told CNR that before they went to work, the university informed them that they were going to work in a company, instead of factories. The university also promised them with eight-hour shifts that would end no later than eight o’clock in the evening, and a salary increase for overtime. However, things weren’t as they  expected.

“Our job is to work as laborers on the assembly line in the factories,” one of the students said. “We have two choices, morning shift or night shift, which lasts from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. respectively.” The students said that their normal working hours were around 13 hours, making them exhausted and ill.

In addition, students told CNR that the internship had no relation to their major.

Students felt cheated by the university, and so told the university about their unbearable working conditions, hoping the school would come up with solutions. However, the university responded that internship was compulsory and students who didn’t achieve it would not get their bachelor’s degree.

What’s more, CNR discovered from a student contract that they were not directly introduced by their university to the workplace. Instead, they were contracted by a human resources company called Huanyu Human Resources. Normally, this kind of HR company will get paid for introducing students to the factories.

However, Huanyu Human Resources told Chinanews.cn that Liaocheng University should take the responsibility. “Liaocheng University told their students that they would work in a company, concealing the fact that students were arranged to work in a factory. In fact, the university contacted us initially,” Huanyu Human Resources told Chinanew.cn.

Liaocheng University responded on their Weibo account on Tuesday, announcing that they had terminated the internship and withdrawn all their students.

China's Ministry of Education issued a regulation about student internships in vocational schools in 2016, in which working overtime and working in night shift are prohibited. However, regulations on internships for university students don’t exist.

This issue has caused a stir on Chinese social media platform Weibo. Most of the netizens objected to the forced internship, saying that the university shouldn’t use the degree to force students to do an internship and students should be given the right to do what will help in their future. However, some commented that it is not uncommon for universities to force their students to do internships nowadays.