"The more you are shy and timid, the more outrageously the teachers will bully you," Ai said.

Ai said her former tutor tried to use his position to intimidate her.

"Be a smart and good girl and I will fix every problem related to your studies. I can help you find a decent job after you graduate," Ai claimed that Xu said to her.

"He tried to put his hand on my shoulder but I evaded it," she said. "I was in pain and under tremendous pressure."

"I expected a professor to be gentle, civilized and refined. Student and teacher should respect each other.

"Those notions were completely shattered."

Ai said the professor continued to harass her. He told her there would be a three-month assessment for each postgraduate student in their first year of study, she said.

"He said that if the student did not behave well, the tutor had the right to ask the student to leave," Ai said.

"I regret not exposing him and I will definitely collect proof to report Xu to the university authorities if I have a second chance," Ai said.

Zuo Lei, who received his doctorate from a university in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, said the relationship between professors, especially those who act as tutors, and students are somehow "profit-tinged".

Individual interests

In Chinese campus culture, tutors are dubbed "bosses". Postgraduate students spend as much time as they can to help their supervisors with academic work as well as errands, Zuo said.

A supervisor has much say in whether his students can graduate or not because he is the first person who approves of their theses, Zuo said.

"An established professor often has lots of resources. He can recommend his students to companies or other universities after they graduate," he said.

"In this regard, a professor has a lot of opportunity to take advantage of students."

Students are certainly in a vulnerable position given their tutors' authority, said Gan Mantang, a sociologist at Fuzhou University in Fujian province.

But the campus sexual harassment cases making the headlines cannot be generalized, Gan said.

"It is common for a university student to have a crush on her teacher and it is acceptable that they have a relationship if both are single," Gan said.

"But if a university educator uses his power to coerce female students into relationships, that would be despicable," Gan said.

Xiong Bingqi, vice-president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said Chinese education authorities must establish a system that will allow universities, teachers, students, students' relatives and media to actively supervise teachers' behavior.

"Education authorities should make public every case involving teachers with unethical behavior and effectively punish them, to help deter others", Xiong said.

"University students should also set up student committees to protect their interests," he said.

Contact the writers at sunli@chinadaily.com.cn