From the Readers

Easy to identify fake degrees

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-19 07:56

I am surprised that people with fake college/university degrees from abroad are still fooling companies in China into offering them top jobs. The recent case of Tang Jun, former Microsoft China's chief, is high profile.

Tang claimed in his autobiography that he had got his PhD from California Institute of Technology in the US. But when fake-diploma-buster Fang Zhouzi (who incidentally holds a PhD in biology) refuted Tang's claim, the former Microsoft China chief said he actually got his doctorate from Pacific Western University, which is a diploma mill.

Almost all American universities have an Office of the Registrar. Usually, any interested person can call, fax or e-mail the registrar to verify whether an individual has received a degree from the university and which session he/she attended.

This process is usually free and very fast. Some of the universities such as the University of Texas in Austin even have a website "look-up page" that lists all former students' awarded degree(s) and the sessions they attended.

Considering how simple the process of verification is, all employers should go through it before employing people with degree from foreign, especially US, universities.

Li Shiyin, via e-mail

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(China Daily 07/19/2010 page9)