On tonight's news it showed a story of Kunming PSB now issuing these.

My Chinese is not good enough to catch the details.
If anyone saw it and can add to the information, please do.
Yunnan TV Channel 2

I think that one big difference here, is that the universities are morel likely to find ways to pass an undergraduate student, except for those universities with international standing (Peking, Tongji, Fudan, etc).

If there is a real threat of being kicked out, then students are more likely to knuckle down on their own. In the UK about 25% of students leave after one year, many being asked to go by the university.

As I have written on another thread, Chinese academics do complain about students' lack of work/study ethic. In one Kunming University's satellite college, I was asked not to fail any of my students, including one who got 9%. No realistic threat of realistic sanctions means low motivation and interest. In one university, I even had one student tell me that I must give her 92%, as she needed the grades to go to Cambridge.
As an aside, one other cause for lack of interest, perhaps 927 and others can confirm this is still the case, the university will choose the major for the student. Places on courses are allocated by administration and many students are not on a major they would have chosen themselves. Out of 60 Foreign Trade majors who attended my classes, only 4 were in the least bit interested in the subject/field.
I have had high school students that were overworked, but I have never had a university student that seemed overworked.

@Satiricalbloke. Just more proof that utilitarian relationships seem to go with the territory, but I guess you already know that. We don't like being treated as a commodity.

We have a new neighbour. Last week she leaned over the fence and asked if I could spend a couple of hours a day talking to her 14 year old son during the holiday. I said I don't teach at home, to which the reply was that it wouldn't be teaching. Because I said no, too directly, I was in my wife's bad books.

In China, most doors will be closed without a gatekeeper. I do mean closed, and you won't even know it. Use the universities connections and relationships to the full extent. The university will steer you away from politically sensitive issues and the problems that can bring. Environmental issues are a hot topic, and people in the field in this province have been jailed for not doing their jobs. You only have a finite amount of time, use all the help you can get. Remember it is not what you know, but who you know.

Further to my last reply.
Regarding work training.

Think of it like this. When you are at school or university your job is to study and hopefully pass exams.
In a company your job is your job. Larger companies will give the HR department money for training. HR departments arrange courses. Managers choose who will go on the courses. Most managers would rather have workers working than going on courses. Unless the manager has a specific need for his staff to be trained in English, the managers don't really care. If English is essential for the job, the companies generally recruit people with that skill.