THE increasing favour shown by
local officials towards the Master of Public Administration degree (MPA) has
sometimes put Gu Jianguang, the professor in charge of the programme at a
prestigious local university, in a difficult position.
The MPA, designed to prepare professionals for their entry or advancement in
the field of public affairs, attracts a large proportion of its students from
government sectors.
"It is a good thing if the cadres apply to study with the goal of improving
their own capabilities. But if they come just so the MPA can embellish their
records and ensure a promotion, then that can be a disaster," said another MPA
professor, refusing to be identified. "Yet, unfortunately, there are always some
officials belonging to the latter type."
Some officials exert their influence to require universities to lower their
entry standards. And in China, the system allows looser control on graduation
than on entry means that so long as a student has entered the course, he is
almost certain of a degree.
The country has recently transferred the MPA enrolling rights to each
university qualified to teach the programme. But the school must publicize the
number of students, the average entrance marks and the lowest entrance mark on
the Internet. If the school has for three consecutive years rated as the last in
terms of entrance marks, it will lose its MPA teaching qualification.
Despite the limitations, central control is becoming looser. It is now up to
the university to resist corruption of its degree courses.
Yet it seems that not all universities consider the issuing of corrupt
degrees as being wrong.
The ongoing heated debate on the issue has split universities providing MPA
programmes into two groups.
One side holds that the MPA is designed for public servants. The enrolling of
some high-ranking officials can help to enhance the reputation of the
university.
The tougher side of the debate represented by Gu holds that the lowering of
requirements in favour of officials will, in the long term, degrade the value of
the MPA, and the reputation of universities.
However, fixing the problem always seems easier to say than to do.
Sometimes the schools have to yield to the pressure from their "official"
students and, at other times, to the temptation of the huge benefits offered by
them.
Fast-track learning
"Absence from classes is a frequent occurrence with many of these 'official'
students," said a cadre from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau who is pursuing
MPA study at East China Normal University, another famous Shanghai university.
"Most schools demand that the classes that a student misses must not be more
than one third of the total and that the average marks for examinations mustn't
be lower than 75 points. Otherwise they will not get the degree. Yet if your
influence is great enough, all these restrictions are just meaningless," he
said, refusing to be identified.
Some of his classmates, who are officials in neighbouring cities, have also
come to the university for the MPA. But as they live faraway, the university
decided to compact one-term of study into one and a half months. Students work
from morning to night in the intensive course.
Yet, even if they do not miss a single class, whether they really learn
something from such intensive study is doubtful.
Jason Li, a computer teacher with a local university, remembered once
teaching a high-ranking official computer skills.
"He had met all the other requirements for a promotion except a computer
certificate when he came to our university," Li said.
"He promised to pay a huge amount so long as we helped him to pass the exam,
and our school leader paid great attention to this 'mutually beneficial' affair
and asked me to try my best help him pass the test."
Li collected different types of questions from past exams and spent one week
teaching the official from morning to night.
The official passed at last and got his promotion. But Li said he would
definitely forget all the things he learned in less than a week.
"Although there are no lines proving a direct link between promotion and
degrees or diplomas, a higher education background is seen as an important
factor when appraising the capability of cadres," said Wang Xiaoqin from the
Shanghai Personnel Bureau.
That is why corruption degrees and diplomas is an ever-present phenomenon.
Corruption diplomas
Compared with people who illegally buy a fake diploma from criminal vendors
to help them find a better job, the actions of officials is harder to detect
because the diploma they hold is a real one and is acknowledged by the Ministry
of Education. The bad effect it can have is also more serious than the actions
of desperate job hunters.
"Apart from the serious effect on the social appraisal and credit system
caused by fake diplomas, the special identity of government officials will
finally result in the general distrust of the public," said Li Wenhai, a
professor from Renmin University, when interviewed by Southern Weekend
newspaper.
"It is easy for people to imagine an official who has a fake diploma may
using his power to falsify other things. If the matter is not well treated, it
will, in the long term, affect the prosperity and stability of society."
Fortunately the country has detected the problem. A nationwide drive to check
the validity of diplomas and degrees held by cadres is underway.
After a period of sifting, officials with dubious qualifications are emerging
one after another.
The latest news is that some 55 officials in Shenzhen were found to have
forged diplomas. There were also about 825 doubtful diplomas.
In Chengdu of Central China's Sichuan Province, 450 cadres were found to have
dubious education certificates.
Many of the problems found were to do with cadres and official exaggerating
their education background. Some claimed that they had obtained bachelor degrees
from full-time university study when, in fact, they had gone to correspondence
school.
Some officials have only a certificate saying they had completed a graduate
courses but they had written in their resumes that they had a master's degree.
As for those who bribe a university to gain entry and then have their
secretaries take classes and write papers for them - not rare in China - they
are almost impossible to detect.
"So far Shanghai hasn't found any of these problems," said Chen Wei, from the
Human Resources Development Department of the Shanghai Personnel Bureau. His
department does a large part of the work in checking up on educational
qualifications in the city.
As far as Chen is concerned, officials with fake or dubious educational
qualifications is not a problem in Shanghai.
However, several universities interviewed by the Shanghai Star, said they
would give a green light to influential government officials.
"Usually we don't check a government cadre's diploma until we receive a
report from the public," Chen said.
"So far we haven't received any reports of this nature."
Nowadays, with the help of the Internet which puts information about all
students from universities on Websites, the problem of detecting fake diplomas
is easier to handle. But rooting out corruption by 'official' students going for
diplomas, seems to have a long way to go.
