Do these phD holders feel any ashamed?
Do they feel any upset, if unearned PhDs shame China's academia?
"China's largest group of PhD candidates and holders is not on campus, but in officialdom," Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University of China, sharply pointed out Monday at the 2009 International Symposium on Higher Education, held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.
Ji's blunt words reflect a problem in China's academia – some PhD candidates on the admission list rarely appear on campus. They neither live in dormitory buildings with their classmates nor go to the library, and they attend class once or twice a year.
However, when the big day of the graduation ceremony arrives, each of these unlearned candidates walks sanctimoniously onto the stage, confidently shakes hands with the university president, and salutes the audience, a PhD diploma in hand and the tassel on their doctoral hat successfully switched to the other side.
The only explanation is that they are officials from various government departments and organizations, who are able to trade for PhD degrees with their administrative power, rather than earning the degrees through long years of hard study.
Wang Yi, former vice-president of China Development Bank, was awarded a PhD in economics from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in 1996, though he had never studied economics.
More than a decade later, in June 2008, when Wang was detained and questioned for suspected bribery, Professor Ge Jianxiong of Shanghai-based Fudan University satirized on his blog that Wang's academic corruption should also be inspected.
Wang's case is definitely not an isolated instance, although it remains unknown how many high officials with PhDs there are among China's newly-graduated 50,000 PhD students each year. (Global Times)
