"Thank you, my dear roommates, for letting me live."

After a spate of violent crimes on campuses across China over the past week, this became a popular greeting and an expression of macabre humor.

The fatal poisoning of Huang Yang, 27, a graduate student from the medical school of Fudan University Tuesday afternoon shocked the country, but the bad news was far from over.

Six hours after Huang's death, a student surnamed Jiang at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics was stabbed to death by his roommate, surnamed Yuan, when a trivial quarrel escalated into violence.

The tragic news continued the following morning, as a high school student in Sixian county, Anhui Province, stabbed a teacher Wednesday morning for her "overly strict management," then a young man at the Shazhou Professional Institute of Technology in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, stabbed a fellow student 12 hours later. Investigations are underway, but the public are already asking why such tragedies occur. Rampant online speculation has attributed the cause to China's high-pressure education system, while professionals have also highlighted mental health as an area in need of attention.

Troubled youth

Lin, Huang's roommate, was identified as the major suspect in the poisoning case. He is being questioned. Shanghai police ruled out arguments over romantic issues as a motive on Thursday, and his classmates denied speculation Lin had intended to poison a different roommate.

With no details of a motive or autopsy results available, the public turned their gaze on Lin, only to discover that he had been described as a smart, diligent and kind person by friends and family, although he sometimes would ignore other people's feelings.

He had also visited Huang several times while Huang was in hospital.

Lin's recent Weibo postings indicate he had concerns as well as some stress from his duties as a hospital intern before the incident, but there were no signs a crime was brewing.

"It's too soon to make judgments without a thorough investigation, but the extreme cases remind us to pay attention to the mental health of our students, especially in cases like this one, which are hard to detect," Sun Yuxiao, a clinical psychologist from the Beijing Spiritual Counseling Fraternity, told the Global Times.

"Such violent cases are rare, but many students have poor control of their emotions and interpersonal communication skills," a senior psychological counselor surnamed Zhang at a Beijing-based university told the Global Times.

"Some have trouble fitting into a group once they are no longer the center of attention, others blame others when facing problems, and some can not handle bullying or jokes," said Sun. Psychologists who spoke to the Global Times pointed out that Lin has yet to be convicted and the causes remain unclear, so it was too soon to speculate as to causes.

Students also admit that they have problems but are reluctant to seek professional help, but online university forums discussing psychological and emotional problems are very popular. When having trouble, 65 percent of students said they would talk to close friends, with only 5 percent saying they would talk to counselors, while 38 percent said they would simply keep it to themselves, according to a 2011 report conducted by the China Campus magazine.

"It would make me feel like a loser or a psychopath to talk to a shrink, and many of us feel the same way," said Yang Li, a senior at Hengyang Normal University in Hunan Province.

Education as a scapegoat?

Speculation over the cause of these problems first latched on to China's competitive education system, with commentators arguing that the emphasis on textbook knowledge did not cultivate healthy personalities or moral integrity. A cursory search of Sina Weibo revealed over 100,000 posts blaming the tragedies on the education system.

Others, however, argued that these were just extreme cases.

Several clinical psychologists contacted by the Global Times noted that the current generation of students had the twin pressures of helicopter parenting and intense academic stress, leading students to have poor coping mechanisms and a low sense of responsibility.

College psychological counselors disagreed. "Character education is a huge endeavor, which involves parental influence, childhood experiences and the society as a whole. Classroom education is only one link in the chain," said Zhang.

Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said that it was inappropriate to use extreme cases as evidence of a "failed" education system, but called for an end to the attitude of painting mental problems as moral defects. "Teachers and parents often use segregation or comparisons between students to turn them against each other. This is due to relentless competition and often hurts their self-esteem or boosts jealousy, which could later turn into psychological problems," Xiong told the Global Times.

Limited resources

Most Chinese universities now have psychological counseling facilities, but are normally understaffed. Even top universities including Peking University, the Renmin University of China (RUC) and Fudan University, normally only have five to six full-time consultants and some 10 to 20 part-time workers, to serve more than 30,000 students.

Apart from face-to-face counseling, school consultants also have to teach mental health courses, organize workshops and lectures, and conduct evaluations among students.

"It's a lot of work to do, and we also have student observers who report cases of unstable students and offer help. But I have to admit that graduate students receive much less care than undergraduates," a consultant surnamed Nie with Peking University told the Global Times. Nie and Zhang both said that many schools offer a one-time compulsory psychological evaluation to freshmen, but it's hard to closely monitor their mental state over time.

Under these circumstances, students have begun to seek help from trained peers whom they can more easily empathize with. Zhang Liwen, a student consultant with RUC's peer counseling program, told the Global Times. "But we don't offer any suggestions, instead we help them with emotional management and lead them to find solutions on their own," she said.

However, Sun noted that counseling is a passive measure when it comes to solving the mental problems afflicting youth. "The key is to prevent risks by educating people in terms of warning signs in themselves or people around them, but that can't be achieved through lectures."