Professor Qiu Daneng is treating his medical school students as dead bodies, to make them appreciate every second of their life.

The kooky professor from Taiwan’s Rende Medical College came up with the idea of having his students enclosed in a coffin and lowered into a cavity under the floor, as a way of giving them insight about death, and thus stimulating them to do the best they can to preserve patients’ lives, as medical doctors. At the beginning of his course, he has his students draw up their testaments, then dresses them up in a funeral shroud and asks them to get into a custom-made coffin. He then lowers them into a cavity beneath the floor and leaves them there for a good 10 minutes.

Qiu Daneng says that “although it’s just 10 minutes, the effect is equal to real death”, and some of his students tend to agree with him. “I felt like I was reborn when I came out and now I know that every second counts in life.” said Xiao Lin, a student who approves of his professor’s offbeat teaching methods.

via Orange.co.uk