Are parent groups essential for ensuring student safety, or do they hinder student growth?
When 20-year-old college sophomore Jiang Yihao was planning her Labor Day holiday this past May, she was surprised to find she required her parents consent in order to leave campus. Her classmates also informed her that their counselor had formed a group chat with the parents. “I feel like I was kept like a baby… I’m an adult now, why can’t I live my own life?” says Jiang.
Jiang’s experience is not uncommon among Chinese college students. Parents have become more involved in their children’s campus life in recent years. Many universities—from the country’s top institutions like the National University of Defense Technology and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics to vocational schools such as Meiga Polytechnic Institute of Hubei—have tasked college counselors, whose job already includes providing guidance on students’ academic, career, and personal lives, with forming group chats with parents and updating them with the latest announcements from the school. Some, like the prestigious Zhejiang University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, even go a step further by sending transcripts to parents at the end of each semester.
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