Diploma worship in the job market is considered to be the main cause of rampant academic fraud.

¡¡¡¡Beijing, Oct. 8, (Xinhuanet) -- It is a quintessentially Chinese notion that a scholar is supposed to be serious and is often held to the highest moral standard. Even during feudal times, when corruption was rampant and the rule of law was almost non-existent, the imperial exam system that served as a bona fide certification for public servants was regarded as free from chicanery.

¡¡¡¡While what it tested was increasingly out of touch with the real world, the integrity with which it was conducted provided a platform where people rich or poor could compete on an equal footing.

¡¡¡¡That seemed to be the "good old days". The halo around higher education is dimming as more and more people have access to it and, more significantly, a substantial number of the recipients employ various means of deception in getting the diplomas or degrees.

¡¡¡¡"China's college credentials are losing their value," deplored Zhu Qingshi, president of University of Science and Technology of China. When schools not qualified for certain programmes are turned into diploma mills, the gain in quantity will surely be offset by a drop in quality, said Zhu. And it will result in a waste of education resources as well as depreciation of these certificates.

¡¡¡¡In 2000, for the first time in Chinese history, post-graduate enrollments reached 120,000 and the pace has been accelerating. On a positive note, it shows that higher education, especially post-graduate education, is no longer limited to a select few and the overall level of education is rising nationwide.

¡¡¡¡But there is a seamy side, too, said Wang Jianping, a media commentator.

¡¡¡¡"A school wants money, and a student wants a diploma for decoration. There seems to be a perfect fit," wrote Wang. "In the hit novel Siege (Wei Cheng) a character buys a fake diploma abroad but feels uneasy about it. Nowadays, some people don their ill-gotten graduation regalia with no shame at all; whereas in the public eye, it is more like the emperor's new clothes."

¡¡¡¡When one talks about "academic fraudulence", one can be referring to one of many forms. Some are uniquely Chinese and others have distinctly foreign origins; likewise, some are being addressed by the authorities while others have a way of mutating that eludes official attention.

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A handcuffed suspect stands beside piles of fake documents intended for sale, at his residence in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

¡¡¡¡Diplomas for sale

¡¡¡¡The most blatant form of cheating is fake documents. According to a CCTV report, a Shenzhen talent agency made a random inspection of 3,000 applicant diplomas and found that as many as 800 were forged. There is no scientific data available about the exact severity of the problem, but a 2000 estimate put the nationwide figure of falsified diplomas at 600,000.

¡¡¡¡Some people say that empirical evidence points to a rising ubiquity of the phenomenon. Someone with a backpack walking outside a downtown book centre in major cities is often approached by vendors of fake diplomas. Online, things are even worse. A Harvard Ph.D. diploma is sold for only US$100.

¡¡¡¡For counterfeiters who manufacture these look-alike documents for a living, education certificates are just one product line out of a whole pool of fake stuff, which may include fake invoices, product labels or any printed matter.

¡¡¡¡There are four places in China that are notorious for churning out these fakes: Zhoukou of Henan Province, Cangnan of Zhejiang Province, Chaoshan of Guangdong Province and Jinjiang of Fujiang Province.

¡¡¡¡"You'll be amazed how authentic these fabrications look," said an officer who has raided on one of the places.

¡¡¡¡Public opinion seems to doubt the effectiveness of these crackdown efforts. "As long as there is market demand for it, rooting out the manufacturers will only drive up the price of fake products, but not eradicate it," said one commentator.

¡¡¡¡In response, some government agencies have taken action. A local regulation in Guangdong stipulates that anyone using a fake diploma is subject to a maximum of 30,000 yuan (US$3,614) in penalty, the same amount as the manufacturer or vendor.

¡¡¡¡Yunnan Province has appealed to the sense of guilt of counterfeiters. Anyone who comes forward to annul the forgery will be pardoned. While none of these good-intentioned moves has achieved much results, the best antidote has arrived in the form of technology.

¡¡¡¡A nationwide online system for certification is being set up and it is fast, accurate and cost-saving, according to Ye Zhiming, director of the personnel department at Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences. "We used to make a lot of calls before we could confirm a single certificate. But now all we need to do is to input the number and pay 15 yuan."

¡¡¡¡Ye told China Daily that this system can stamp out 80-90 per cent of known diploma forgeries. While some smaller schools have not installed a proper database and many old records have not been entered yet, the chance of getting past a strict human resources officer is getting slim.