QuickWire: Chinese Professor Is Criticized for iPad Requirement

A Chinese professor has been criticized for requiring that his students purchase iPads and recommending that they take on extra summer jobs to finance the tablet if they cannot afford one, according to a report in Shanghai Daily. Henry Liang, who teaches finance in English at Shanghai Maritime University, notified students on his personal blog last week that all course materials, including tests and PowerPoint presentations, would be in iPad format only. He then wrote: “If you cannot earn merely 4,000 yuan (U.S. $618.40) in the two-month summer vacation, you are not suitable to learn finance or be my students.” University officials said that they disapproved of the iPad mandate and that they would intervene if the professor placed this “unreasonable requirement” on students. The professor has since backed off from the requirement and said that iPads would be recommended—adding that he had not yet cemented his plans for the forthcoming semester.