The lingering controversy surrounding the death of a young woman who committed suicide last month has brought into focus the alleged lack of sensitivity to the problems of out-of-town students in Shanghai's many colleges.

The mother of Yang Yuanyuan, who killed herself, was allegedly evicted from her daughter's university dormitory.

Yang Yuanyuan, a 30-year-old postgraduate student at Shanghai Maritime University, was found dead last month in the bathroom of the dormitory where she lived. Police said Yang used two towels to hang herself on a sink faucet in the toilet on Nov 26.

An unnamed letter posted on an online forum linking her death to her university has stirred protests from many people who blame the rigid rules of the university for trying to kick Yang's mother out of the residence - which it claimed pushed her to end her life.

The university Thursday denied the charges, claiming that it offered assistance to Yang, a native of Hubei province, by helping her find part-time work in the school and offering her and her mother subsidized housing on campus.

The incident gained national significance because Shanghai, with its many top universities, has become a magnet for aspiring students countrywide. Yang, a graduate of business administration at Wuhan University, had sought to further her studies in a more specialized field of maritime law in Shanghai, which provides much better job prospects.

Yang's mother came to stay with her in the dormitory in Shanghai against the rules of the university. Messages on the Internet alleged that attempts by the university to evict her mother had caused her so much grief that she took her own life.