After a university student “fared badly” in his final exams, he and some friends created an insurance company to protect against failure.
While most students feel discouraged by bad grades, Xu Yecheng used his as inspiration for a new insurance product.
After Xu “fared badly” on final exams at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, he recruited fellow finance majors Guan Lingzi and Shao Tianyu to devise a line of failure insurance, according to China News Service.
"He joked that if there was any insurance for failing in the exams, he would have bought it and got some comfort," Guan told Shanghai Daily. The group agreed that other students probably had similar anxieties, and set out to design the policies.
First, they opened a WeChat account to serve as the business platform. As part of the coverage, students submit five yuan ($1.02 CAD) for each of their university courses, and receive a WeChat confirmation as a “contract.”
If the student policyholder then fails that course’s final exam, they receive 30 yuan ($6.14) as an insurance payout. While not necessarily risk mitigation, to encourage students to purchase failure insurance coverage, they also pay 20 yuan ($4.09 CAD) to anyone who scores a 90 or above on a final exam.
"By developing this insurance package with such a small sum of money, we are not encouraging students to blow their exams, but to help them to relax before the exams," Guan said.
The coverage has already gained popularity on campus, with 150 students signing up on the first day alone.
"Thirty-yuan compensation is not a big sum of money," Xu said. "But buying the insurance did give me some kind of psychological comfort."
Since the product is new, the team is unsure if the company will be profitable in the long-term. They hope to sustain it regardless, since it does provide that relief to peers.
Perhaps they can even develop it into finance project for one of their courses and receive an A, as well as 20 yuan.
