[Epoch Times, April 1, 2022](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporter Li Yun) The topic of Meng Wei, a doctoral student at Zhejiang University, made money by delivering food was on the hot search on April 1. As one of the top ten college students, he, After 8 years of Ph.D. but failed to graduate, many netizens sighed: “It’s inexplicable sadness!”
Caijing.com reported on April 1 that Meng Wei, a top ten college student at Zhejiang University, was studying for a doctoral student at Zhejiang University, but he made a living by delivering food part-time. Meng Wei didn’t expect that the video of himself struggling to deliver food was not popular, but the topic of “Zhejiang University doctoral students delivering food” suddenly became popular, and the number of views on Zhihu reached 7 million.
Upstream News contacted Meng Wei and learned that he is 31 years old this year and is a doctoral student at the School of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University. Meng Wei said: “The research progress was very slow, which made me very anxious. My supervisor asked me to transfer to a master’s degree. I took medicine for a year, and I slept better and my anxiety improved.”
The relevant student status information released by Meng Wei on the short video platform shows that he enrolled in September 2014 and graduated in June 2019. The current student status is displayed as “enrolled”.
Meng Wei said that he had his own reasons as well as the mentor factor as to why he still failed to graduate after 8 years of Ph.D. After his son was born in 2021, he became ill and needed money, so he started to deliver food part-time. Although graduation is delayed, there is still another opportunity to defend within three years, and he hopes to seize this opportunity.
According to previous reports by “Zhejiang University Micro-Engineering” and “Zhejiang University Postgraduate Official Weibo”, Meng Wei, a 2014 doctoral student, graduated from the Outstanding Engineering Department of the Control Department and the Zhu Kezhen College Public Management Intensive Course.
In his junior year, Meng Wei received invitations from both our school and the Chinese Academy of Sciences for research protection, but he finally chose to continue his studies at Zhejiang University.
It is said that he made a doctoral plan at that time. In 2014, he was sent to the “Intellectual Sense Institute of Control College” to study for a doctoral degree, and he was originally expected to graduate in 2019.
During his Ph.D. studies, Meng Wei served as a postgraduate part-time counselor, G20 summit volunteer, and postgraduate party branch secretary. At the same time, it undertakes 8 key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, science and technology projects of Zhejiang Province, and horizontal scientific research projects of school-enterprise cooperation.
Meng Wei has also won the American Council of 100 Talent Award, Zhejiang University Guanghua Scholarship, Social Work and Social Practice Scholarship, Zhejiang University Outstanding Graduate Cadre, Sanhao Graduate Student, Outstanding Graduate Student, and won the Central Control Scholarship of the School of Control for four consecutive years. He has also been invited to visit and exchange in Germany, Canada, the United States, and Israel.
Although Meng Wei performed well and won several scholarships, he did not graduate after 8 years of Ph.D.
As for why he chose to deliver food, Meng Wei said that his child fell ill one and a half months after birth and needed money. He developed depression because he could not graduate and was treated with medication. That’s why I started renting bicycles and spending a few hours a day as a delivery driver.
Some netizens wondered why they didn’t find other part-time jobs. He lamented that it is difficult for doctoral students to find a job without a degree. “He hopes to share his own situation, so that the students under the professor can study and graduate normally.
The incident caused heated discussions among netizens:
“This event seems to be very inspirational, but it is inexplicably sad!”
“It’s a pity, I didn’t put what I learned into practice! It’s really a waste if you keep doing this kind of job.”
“It’s not that the doctor delivers food, but why can’t the doctor find a more lucrative career than food delivery? Is it the school’s fault, or the society doesn’t need high-end talents? Who is the doctor for?!”
Responsible editor: Lin Congwen