CHINA: Professors among those expelled for absenteeism

It is not rare for teachers to leave their posts without authorisation and not come back from abroad on time in China's colleges. However Hunan University, according to the Changsha Evening News, is the first to expel a large number of staff members for these reasons, writes Wang Hanlu for People's Daily. Recently, 26 teachers at Hunan University, including six professors, were notified that they had been laid off because they left their posts without authorisation.

There are more than 1,300 teachers in Hunan University, a number of whom were involved in part-time outside jobs. In response, Hunan University recently formulated new rules which said that teachers doing part-time jobs, who leave posts without being authorised, or who are absent from duties without authorisation, are guilty of violations.

The university said it would consider employees not back at their posts for six successive days or who were absent from duties for more than 15 days as having withdrawn voluntarily.
Full report on the People Daily site