The expulsion of four students from a Beijing university has blown up into a major row between the institution and the city's education commission.

The four were expelled for cheating in their exams at the Central University of Nationalities, but were then reinstated by Beijing Education Commission after appealing against the decision.

The university, which has up until now stood behind its original decision, has not yet decided how to resolve the situation.

The university first expelled 10 students who were discovered taking notes into an end-of-term exam this January.

According to university rules, any exam fraud can lead to a student being expelled.

Dishonourable behaviour includes hiding books under desks, looking around at other people's exam papers and bringing notes into exams.

Six students left the school immediately, but the four others demanded a legal review carried out by Beijing's educational authorities.

Beijing Education Commission said the expulsions were against the rules in February, saying that the university's expulsions were delivered without a special hearing.

This is a procedure designated by the Ministry of Education and allows students and teachers to vote on whether to punish cheating.

However, the university still insisted its decision was right after holding a hearing into the case in March.

But after that hearing, the students again appealed to city's education commission. That body has now said the university was in the wrong.

It said the cheating did not fall into four categories described as severe enough to expel students, according to Zhan Zhongle, a lawyer representing the students. He is also a law professor at Peking University.

According to Zhan, the four students behaved well in school and the exam was the first time they had cheated.

"It is unfair to deprive them of their educational rights based on a minor wrong-doing. The punishment meted out by the university should be in line with the level of cheating committed," he said.

Zhan also added that the university had not followed the correct procedures when dealing with this incident.

"Not distinguishing between different levels of cheating will lead to unfair judgments. The university disciplinary system needs improving," said Zhan.

He emphasized that the ruling from Beijing Education Commission was a legal ruling and should be obeyed.

One of the four students, surnamed Li, said: "There have been negotiations between us and the university time and time again during the past six months.

"We are really tired. We know we did wrong, but we really hope we can have a second chance so we can resume our studies," said Li.

He Jingsong, dean of the legal regulation department at Beijing Education Commission, was quoted by Beijing Youth Daily as saying that he would not comment on the implementation of the commission's order as it might influence the case.

Han Guogang, dean of the university's students' administration office, told China Daily yesterday that he had not received an official notice about the second commission ruling.

(China Daily September 12, 2006)