Daijiworld Media Network - Taipei

Taipei, Jul 19: A shocking controversy has erupted at Taiwan's prestigious National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) after a football coach was accused of coercing students to donate blood in exchange for academic credits. The coach, Zhou Tai-ying, who headed the women's team, has since been dismissed.

The scandal came to light after a student, identified as Jian, alleged that she had to undergo over 200 blood draws during her university years to earn the required 32 academic credits for graduation. In a public post, Jian said, "Sometimes this involved continuous sampling for up to 14 days, on occasion three times a day, from 5 am to 9 pm."

Describing the ordeal, she added, "By the eighth consecutive day of blood draws, they could barely find a vein in either arm. They even tried my wrist and failed. It was excruciating." Jian also shared a video of herself sobbing during one such procedure, sparking outrage online.

The blood was reportedly drawn by untrained individuals under the guise of “on-campus research experiments.” Another student claimed that Zhou bullied them into compliance and said she avoided telling her parents to prevent distress. "If my dad knew, he'd definitely go fight the coach," she said.

On July 13, NTNU announced that Zhou had been removed from her position and banned from leading any sports teams. Zhou issued an apology, saying, “I deeply regret the emotional distress caused to the students and want to say sorry to all of you.” However, both the apology and the university's announcement were later deleted from social media.

Education authorities have issued an administrative penalty against the university, while social media users condemned Zhou as a “vampire” and demanded criminal action.