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investigation motivation

recently, some overseas students and relevant social figures have reported to the overseas study service center of the ministry of education that some intermediary agencies have included a large number of false statements related to the center and foreign academic degree certification in their online promotions of various "study abroad" projects.

in response to this, the center recently issued a solemn statement: the center has no cooperative relationship with any intermediary agency. any advertisements claiming "guaranteed certification" or "internal channel certification" are false propaganda. the advertisements of some intermediary agencies claiming "guaranteed admission" and "guaranteed graduation" are inconsistent with the admission and graduation requirements of regular universities at home and abroad, and are suspected of fraud or misleading. those who intend to apply for studying abroad should be vigilant and guard against risks.

why do some students trust the above-mentioned intermediary agencies? how to deal with the chaos of intermediary agencies buying and selling academic qualifications? to this end, the reporter conducted an investigation and interview.

"with a down payment of 30,000 yuan, you can become a famous alumnus. you don't need to be checked for attendance in class. the academic affairs teacher will help you complete your homework and papers to ensure that you graduate smoothly. you can complete your master's and doctoral studies in as fast as 3 years." "we will help you complete the american master's program in 3 months and obtain a degree certificate widely recognized by companies." "with only tens of thousands of yuan, you can get a doctorate degree at ×× university."...

recently, a reporter from legal daily saw many "experience posts" about "quickly obtaining a degree" on some social networking platforms, and some people vividly described how they successfully obtained a master's or doctoral degree. these posts, which seem to share their successful exams, are actually recruitment methods used by some intermediary agencies. they take advantage of the characteristics of some overseas universities, such as "easy admission, easy graduation", "short school system" and "low price", to open up a new path for studying abroad that seems to be "extremely cost-effective". they provide a complete "one-stop" service, from helping to "operate" applications, writing student assignments and papers, to improving students' backgrounds when they return to china to find jobs.

experts interviewed believe that some education and training institutions have launched paid services for "quick education" to meet the needs of some audiences for higher education. when education becomes a business for intermediary institutions, related chaos ensues. in practice, there may be multiple problems such as false propaganda, breach of contract, and education fraud. to address related chaos, we must start with education granting, certification, market supervision, and other aspects to prevent consumers from being "dazzled" by the mixed intermediary institutions.

intermediary agency boasts

he said he would definitely get the certificate after paying the money

"my grades in high school were not very good, and it has always been a pity that i could not go to a good university. i am usually ashamed to talk about my university with others." ms. yue from hubei said that this has become a pain in her heart. so when she accidentally saw a post from an agency promoting "online postgraduate study" at the beginning of this year, she decided to apply without much hesitation.

"at that time, the institution recommended two options based on my situation: studying abroad and studying online." ms. yue said that considering that studying online does not require going abroad and the cost is lower, she spent more than 60,000 yuan to sign up. the school is an overseas university, and the total study time is one and a half years, including 10 courses and 30 credits, all of which are taught online. you can obtain a master's degree by submitting homework and papers on time. "the institution promised that there will be teachers to help complete the homework, and after graduation, they can help with wes (world education services) certification, which can be recognized by domestic companies."

the reporter found that there are many people like ms. yue who hope to buy academic qualifications. many interviewees believe that in the current job market, academic qualifications are often regarded as a direct reflection of job seekers' abilities. when recruiting, some employers will explicitly require applicants to have a certain academic background, which has prompted some people to have an urgent need to improve their academic qualifications.

according to the survey, many people are willing to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of yuan on "tuition fees" to upgrade their academic qualifications, as some overseas academic qualifications are relatively easy to obtain and quick to obtain, and are also recognized by society to a certain extent. many intermediary agencies have taken advantage of this opportunity to launch "education upgrade" and "education quick success" services.

the reporter searched on social platforms and found that many intermediary agencies promoted "quick degree" services in the form of sharing experiences. and as long as you click on a post with related content, the platform will continue to push similar content, such as "2-year undergraduate, full tuition fee of 2,180 yuan, no need to go to school to get a degree" and "you can get an online master's degree in 3 days". many agencies made promises in their promotions, and there are many promises that are more "tempting" than ms. yue's "one and a half years of online postgraduate study to get a certificate". from registration, examinations, writing papers to graduation and job hunting, "all-inclusive services" seem to be that students don't have to do anything, and everything will be fine after paying the money.

"as long as you register and pay the fee, have a previous education, and can understand basic english sentences, we can guarantee that you will be successfully admitted to the university of ×× in the uk and graduate smoothly." when the reporter consulted a shanghai agency on the grounds of improving academic qualifications, the agency replied, "masters can graduate in one year, and the fastest time for a master's and doctoral degree is three years."

when the reporter mentioned that his academic performance was poor and he was worried that his thesis would not pass, the staff of the institution promised, "you can spend an additional 20,000 yuan to sign up for the vip class, where there is no attendance check and there will be teachers throughout the whole process to help you complete your homework and thesis, and to ensure that you can graduate."

when communicating with a beijing educational technology company, the reporter asked, "let me think about it again." the other party immediately replied, "don't hesitate any longer. our institution can guarantee that you can get a degree from a top overseas university online, and there will be absolutely no problem graduating. we have already had tens of thousands of students graduate from our institution. many of them have been promoted and given salary increases because of the overseas degrees we provide, and they even sent us banners."

the reporter interviewed several institutions that provided academic qualifications, and all of them claimed that they could provide wes diploma certification and communicate with china higher education student information and career center. the reporter consulted several companies' hr (human resources) about this type of certification, and they all said, "we only recognize the certification from the ministry of education's overseas study service center, and we cannot confirm the authenticity of other methods."

in addition to selling overseas "quick academic qualifications", some intermediary agencies' business scope also includes the domestic study market.

some institutions claim that "as long as the money is in place, there is no need to attend classes. during the exam, we will give you predicted test questions in advance, and we can predict 85% of the questions." "even if you don't have a technical secondary school diploma, you can upgrade from a technical secondary school degree to a part-time university like 985, 211, or 'double first-class' through our institution."

mr. chen from zhengzhou, henan, once bought related services from an institution. he has a junior college degree and works in a vocational qualification examination training institution. in order to open up the promotion channel, he plans to obtain the vocational qualification certificate, but the application conditions for such certificates are a bachelor's degree or above. after seeing an advertisement for "quick academic qualifications" from a certain institution, he spent 3,000 yuan to buy a "guaranteed pass package for upgrading to a bachelor's degree".

"they said they could help me with the course preparation and the teacher would give me predicted exam materials which i could basically pass after just a look at. but in fact it was of no use and i had never seen the questions in the final exam," mr. chen complained.

educational qualifications are not recognized when applying for a job

intermediary suspected of fraud

in addition to employment opportunities, some people purchase academic qualifications in order to improve their social status and gain more social recognition.

mr. liu from cangzhou, hebei, spent 170,000 yuan to enroll in a one-year overseas master's program. "i am a teacher at an english training institution. in our industry, the requirements for teachers' academic qualifications are generally high, but i am usually busy with work, so i hope i can obtain a better academic qualification as soon as possible to pave the way for my future career development."

but can one really get what he wants by purchasing a degree through an intermediary agency?

mr. liu bluntly stated that the academic degree he obtained at a high price could not be certified by the ministry of education’s overseas study service center. during the job-hopping process, he found that many domestic companies and units did not recognize this academic degree.

the reporter searched for "education" as a keyword on a third-party complaint platform and found that as of now, there are more than 40,000 related complaints, most of which are "false advertising" and "refusal to refund". among the complaints involving the keyword "overseas education", the main disputes include: education and training institutions package non-academic education as academic education, and students cannot pass thechina education service centerthere is misleading or fraudulent behavior in sales, and the institution refuses to refund.

a consumer reported that he was "cheated" by an agency: he signed a service agreement with the agency, and the agreement stated that "party a ensures that when students apply for enrollment, the school they apply for can be found on the foreign-related supervision website or the china study abroad network. regardless of whether they apply for a sino-foreign joint mba (master of business administration) or an internationally independently run mba, after successful graduation, they can obtain a foreign master's degree certificate. after being certified by the china education service center, the certificate is equivalent to a domestic graduate degree certificate." however, he could not find the school he attended on the foreign-related supervision website, and his academic qualifications could not be certified on the china study abroad network. the "hague certification" mentioned by the other party is not recognized when applying for a job.

ge youshan, director of the consumer rights protection committee of the beijing lawyers association, pointed out that according to the civil code, the above-mentioned behavior of the intermediary agency may constitute fraud. if the student proves that the agency deliberately concealed or made false propaganda, causing him to mistakenly believe that the certificate he obtained can be generally recognized and suffer losses, he can request to cancel the contract through civil means, return the money paid, and request compensation for losses. "when there is an institution that only provides degree certificates but no academic certificates, and the certificate is not generally recognized, the student should promptly request to cancel the contract and recover the tuition fees paid. if the agency's propaganda is misleading, and the uncertified degree affects the student's career planning and economic interests, the student can also claim damages."

violating the basic purpose of education

the contract may be deemed invalid

regarding contracts where some institutions claim to help students "complete their studies on their behalf", ge youshan believes that this violates the basic purpose of education and the public interest of society, and such contracts are likely to be deemed invalid. according to the "management measures for practitioners of off-campus training institutions (trial)" issued by the ministry of education and the ministry of human resources and social security, off-campus training practitioners are not allowed to publish or forward erroneous views through various channels, or fabricate and spread false information. if academic qualification improvement institutions do not complete their studies according to normal attendance, but enjoy the service of completing homework and papers on their behalf by paying fees, the actions of both education practitioners and students may constitute fraud and damage the public interest.

"we should be cautious and rational about the promises made by training institutions that 'master's degree can be successfully graduated in one year, and doctoral degree can be successfully graduated in two to three years'. quick graduation paths such as 'quick education' often mean that students may not have enough time to study and understand complex academic issues in depth, resulting in students' lack of professional knowledge and skills, affecting their academic ability and future career development." ge youshan said that at the same time, such promises may expose training institutions to multiple legal risks, including breach of contract and suspected unfair competition. once such promises made by training institutions cannot be fulfilled, consumers can demand compensation from the training institutions in accordance with relevant laws.

wang yegang, a professor at the central university of finance and economics, believes that from the perspective of the process and conditions for obtaining a degree, there are many factors that affect students' graduation, such as whether students can complete the school's training program and whether they can complete their graduation thesis. graduate education requires students to actually participate in course learning and cultivate their academic literacy and cultural foundation. if the learning process is simply replaced by money payment, it not only violates the laws of education, but also violates the principles of integrity and public order and good customs. "this kind of promise is untenable at the legal level."

"if a training institution makes these promises to students merely for enrollment promotion, to induce students to sign up and to make profits, but in fact has no ability to fulfill the promises, it may constitute fraud and false propaganda, and its legal responsibilities should be pursued in accordance with the law," said wang yegang.

strict academic certification review

improve the degree awarding system

since september 2021, the education ministry's overseas study service center has issued five batches of review announcements involving 32 foreign universities or their academic education programs. the degree law, which will come into effect in january 2025, clearly requires that "the recognition of degree certificates issued by overseas educational institutions should be handled strictly in accordance with relevant national regulations."

experts interviewed pointed out that the chaos of buying and selling "quick academic qualifications" disrupts educational order, undermines educational equity, and damages the credibility of official certification agencies, and that governance urgently needs to be strengthened.

wang yegang believes that the first thing to do is to improve the degree awarding system. when awarding degrees, the review should be strengthened and the authenticity and validity of students' degree application materials should be strictly checked. once the phenomenon of forged application materials is found, it should be dealt with seriously. in the degree awarding process, the education department should grasp the last checkpoint to ensure the legitimacy of the degree and academic certificates.

"secondly, we need to improve laws and regulations and enforce them strictly. in response to fraud and false propaganda by training institutions, the legal responsibilities of training institutions should be further specified within the existing legal system, the cost of violations for perpetrators should be increased, and the credibility of the education system should be maintained. at the same time, the public should also be encouraged to report on illegal training institutions so that they can be cracked down on in a timely manner, forcing them to lose their foothold in the market and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of consumers." said wang yegang.

"we need to control the quality of the institutions at the source. official certification agencies should continue to increase the intensity of certification review and combine multiple auxiliary materials for evaluation. at the same time, channels should be set up. when employers have questions about a certain academic qualification, the education authorities should actively cooperate with the review and appraisal and smooth the feedback channels." ge youshan said that the quality control of certified institutions should be strengthened, the quality of mutually recognized institutions should be strictly controlled, and the list of institutions should be updated in a timely manner. the approval procedures should be strictly implemented to ensure that training institutions meet the qualification requirements, thereby preventing the emergence of unqualified institutions. different types of training institutions should apply for approval from the corresponding government departments, and classified management will help to accurately supervise.

"in the supervision of training institutions, we can mobilize the forces of multiple departments such as education, market supervision, and civil affairs to form a synergistic effect. for example, the market supervision department will increase law enforcement efforts in areas such as false propaganda and operating beyond the scope of business; the education department will strengthen the review of education quality and teacher qualifications to more comprehensively guarantee the healthy development of the academic training market." ge youshan said.

ge youshan suggested that regulatory agencies should strengthen supervision and management of training institutions by establishing and improving legal systems, strengthening approval and daily supervision, and improving information disclosure and complaint channels to ensure teaching quality and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of students and parents. institutions that engage in fraud and deception may be punished by the competent department or other relevant administrative departments, and may be ordered to correct their behavior and, depending on the circumstances, be given a warning, confiscate illegal gains, or be fined. in serious cases, the institution may be ordered to suspend operations for rectification or have its business license revoked. students who obtain degrees in violation of regulations may have their degrees revoked.

text/wen lijuan and zhang wanying

comics/li xiaojun

editor/tan weiping