Beijing ? In four days of protests, up to 10,000 college students fought with Chinese police, damaging cars and buildings and leaving at least 20 people injured, a foreign monitoring center said.

The student uprising began Saturday in Nanchang, a city in Jiangxi province, after students learned that the government might not recognize academic records from two private schools, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

The paramilitary People’s Armed Police were deployed to contain the protests and at least five people were detained, the report said.

The schools serve students who failed intensely competitive entrance exams for government-subsidized universities but can afford to pay higher private tuition.

Such schools initially granted degrees and academic records in the name of the parent institution. But the government has cracked down on that practice, prompting student complaints that the new status hurts their job prospects.