A teacher from Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been punished for committing an ethics violation on March 25.

Ni Bingbing, the PhD supervisor and teacher from the school of electronic information and electrical engineering, was found to have made students write their dissertations without any rest. He also told them in a WeChat group that they were garbage and idiots who don’t deserve a break.

A screengrab of the WeChat conversation between the teacher and his students has since gone on the internet.

Following an investigation conducted by the university, the teacher was made to apologize to his students. He has also been reprimanded and suspended from work.