Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

In the information age, the Internet has become a necessity for university students and therefore net charges are a fixed expenditure for them. However, reporters for CCTV found after an investigation that some universities charge as much as 5,000 yuan ($800) for a dormitory bed per year, without adequate wireless access. Students of Chengdu Neusoft University and Sichuan University cannot use wireless routers and consequently are blocked from surfing the Internet with their smart phones or tablets. And they need to pay extra fees for Wi-Fi or mobile 3G networks. But it's their own universities that denied their access to free Wi-Fi services by cooperating with China Telecom and creating one account per student so they can share the profit with telecom operators. Students fall victim to the monopoly of campus broadband service by universities and telecom operators. For these universities, students aren't subjects for teaching, but a piñata to beat cash out of.