Candidates take the national postgraduate entrance exam at University of South China in Hengyang, central China's Hunan Province, Dec. 21, 2019. More than 3.4 million Chinese have signed up for the 2020 national exam for postgraduate enrolment scheduled from Dec. 21 to 23, the Ministry of Education said. (Photo by Cao Zhengping/Xinhua)

On Sunday, North University of China expressed their condolences to the family of a sophomore student who committed suicide after being caught cheating during an exam the previous day. The student's family members and university were divided on who should be responsible for the tragedy, with fierce discussion occurring on social media. 

The 20-year-old man, surnamed Shi, from the Software College of North University of China, was caught cheating by hiding his mobile phone under the desk during a make-up examination around 2:30 pm on Saturday. 

About 20 minutes later, Shi left the examination room, and was found dead after jumping off a building on the campus around 3 pm. Before Shi committed suicide, he sent one last text message to his mother saying "sorry" and "not to worry about me."

The university notified the public of the incident on its official account of China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Sunday, noting that the surveillance camera footage of the examination room showed that the supervisor of the exam did not scold the student, nor was there any verbal conflict between the teacher and student. 

According to the university, the local police have been investigating the incident further, and the university is proactively communicating with Shi's parents to carefully handle this delicate matter. 

However, Shi's family members and the university remain divided on this issue. One net user, who claimed to be Shi's cousin, posted on Weibo that Shi was treated differently compared to other students who were also caught cheating on the exam. While the other students were not punished, Shi's examination paper was quickly confiscated by the exam supervisor. 

On Monday, Shi's cousin, surnamed Zhang, told the Global Times that the exam supervisor also forced Shi to sign a letter of commitment before uploading the photo of the letter onto the internet to inform the whole university of his behavior. He claims that throughout this period, Shi was crying profusely and felt helpless. 

Zhang also claimed it was the supervisor's tough stance, and the class teacher's negligence to perform the duties that led to Shi's suicide. 

"We admitted that it was my cousin's fault to cheat on the exam, but that doesn't mean the university should avoid responsibility for the tragedy which happened on campus during school hours," Zhang told the Global Times on Monday. 

"We have been wondering why my cousin's emotions experienced such a tremendous change in just 20 minutes, but the university has not given us an explanation as of yet." 

However, Shi's family members' challenge towards the University was not received by most net users. 

As of Monday afternoon, the surveillance camera footage of the examination room and an interview conducted with one of Shi's parents had received more than 720,000 likes, over 34,000 comments, and was forwarded over 5,100 times on Weibo. 

One net user who had questioned why the teacher should comfort the "cheater" at an exam received over 131,000 likes. Another net user suggested the exam supervisor may also suffer from psychological pressure in the future due to the role he played in the student's suicide, and received over 98,000 likes. 

Meanwhile, other netizens proposed that the tragedy could have been avoided if the student had received more encouragement and help from his university lecturers and classmates.