Hundreds of police have been deployed to a central China university after thousands of students rioted and went on strike in a dispute with school management.

Witnesses say as many as ten thousand students from Zhengzhou University in Henan province were involved in the unrest, which broke out last Thursday and saw the campus ransacked.

Photos of the unrest posted on the Internet showed the windows of an on-campus branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China smashed in, dormitories and cars vandalized, and bicycles strewn across the university.

One student is quoted as saying around 15-thousand students had originally been promised diplomas with the university but were told they would only be given diplomas bearing the name of a less prestigious branch of the institution.

The student said the15-thousand students affected by the diploma issue had gone on strike and would not return to class until the dispute was resolved.

ABC Asia Pacific TV / Radio Australia