[Nasional-e] In China, flood of fake diplomas

[Ambon]

 In China, flood of fake diplomas

Ted Plafker IHT Tuesday, October 15, 2002

Cheating on international exams also said to be widespread

BEIJING Ever since it launched market-oriented reforms of its socialist
educational system in the 1990s, the Chinese government has struggled to
wean college students from their long-standing expectations of subsidized
schooling, and persuade them instead that an advanced degree was worth
paying for.
.
For better or worse, that effort has succeeded. The good news is that
today's Chinese students are gladly willing to shell out their own money in
pursuit of diplomas. The bad news is that hundreds of thousands of them have
opted to hit the streets and buy fake ones on the black market, rather than
hit the books and earn real ones in the halls of academe.
.
In the bookshops, cafés and back streets of university districts in Beijing
and many other cities, hawkers offer high quality fake diplomas for as
little as 200 yuan, or about $25.
.
And diplomas are not the only thing being faked. In response to the pressure
of China's increasingly competitive market-based society, students and
graduates routinely forge transcripts and reference letters. In addition,
outright cheating is rampant on international standardized tests such as the
GRE (Graduate Record Examinations).
.
These unintended - but perhaps inevitable - consequences of Chinese reform
policies threaten to distort the nation's employment market, undermine the
foundation of academic integrity in China, and hamper Chinese efforts to
participate more in international scholarly exchanges.
.
In August, the U.S.-based Educational Testing Service, which administers the
GRE worldwide, announced that it was canceling its GRE Computer Science
Subject Test in China (and also India) because of widespread cheating. That
followed an earlier decision by the testing service to suspend its
computer-administered GRE General Test in China and other parts of Asia
after investigators discovered that students were improperly sharing test
questions.
.
"If we continue to offer this test in these countries where our
investigation has revealed students immediately post test questions on the
Internet, it will threaten the usefulness of the test both for U.S. graduate
admission officers and students worldwide," said a statement from Carole
Beere, chair of the GRE Board. "From a fairness standpoint, this is the only
action that will allow the large proportion of computer science examinees in
other countries to demonstrate their capabilities for admissions
committees."
.
Tom Gold, a China scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and a
member of the admissions committee for the Ph.D program at the school's
sociology department, has noticed a sharp rise during the past year in
suspiciously high test scores among the many Chinese applications he
receives.
.
Very high math scores have been common in years past but, Gold says, many
Chinese applicants now submit nearly perfect scores on the verbal portion of
the tests they take in English.
.
"I've taught English in Taiwan so I know what it's like for these kids, and
I simply can't conceive of so many people doing that well on the tests. How
is it possible? It just set my alarm bell off and I've become extremely
suspicious," Gold said.
.
His department last year ended up admitting only one out of more than 30
Chinese applicants.
.
Such fraud also has a huge impact inside China. State media reported in
September on a nationwide campaign to hunt down thousands of party and
government officials who have been promoted on the basis of fake diplomas or
other falsehoods in their résumés. "Positions in government are those with
power and trust. When unethical people are hired and promoted, it disturbs
governance and shakes the public's confidence in the government," huffed one
state-run newspaper.
.
But according to experts, putting an end to the trade in bogus credentials
will not be easy. In announcing the new crackdown, officials have also
released staggering figures showing just how widespread the practice is.
.
China's Ministry of Education revealed that in the latest national census,
the number of people in China claiming to hold degrees was more than 500,000
higher than the number of diplomas that have been legally awarded.
.
Officials are taking a two-pronged approach to combat the flood of fakes.
Police are hitting the streets to go after the producers and sellers.
Education officials, meanwhile, are scrambling to establish "authentication
centers" so that academic admissions officers and prospective employers can
check up on any résumés that look too good to be true.
.
Education officials say Chinese institutions are only just getting familiar
with the idea of checking credentials. Liu Yupin, director of a
Beijing-based authentication center, told state media that he received fewer
than 100 verification requests this year. It turned out that 20 percent of
the diplomas he checked were fake. Keith Clemenger, director of the Beijing
office of the Institute of International Education, notes that building a
trustworthy accreditation system is costly and difficult in any environment,
and all the more so in a place like China where fake receipts and
counterfeit products are commonplace.
.
"I think China is still a generation away, and it's a shame because there
are sometimes very bright people who present genuinely brilliant
applications, and they may not be taken seriously," Clemenger said.
.
Gold agreed. "It gnaws at me that with my heightened sense of suspicion, I
don't trust anyone and maybe I'm passing over some really talented
candidates who deserve a chance."
.
Ted Plafker is The Economist's Beijing correspondent.