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Shoulders stoop carrying education system's weight

By Zhu Yuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-04 08:30

If there is anything that should never be industrialized and rolled off from assembly lines, it's academia. The reason doesn't get any simpler: The input is creative thinking and the output creative ideas or arguments.

The local administration of industry and commerce in Wuhan, Hubei province, recently busted an organized racket of buying and selling dissertations. The company had hired some 80 people to produce academic papers, taking hints from over 200 published journals, for paying customers.

Even more disturbing was a telling statement made by the boss of the firm that his was only one of many companies of the kind prospering in the Chinese education market.

"And the market is growing by the year. There is great demand for research papers," he said.

What the hell! Mass production of dissertations as if they were industrial products has become a prosperous business!

The company claimed it had been doing great business for almost three years. But the business is anything but legal. It's so illegal that it makes us want to come right out of our skin.

For several thousands of years, academia has been considered as an ivory tower. Such fine qualities as spirit of dedication, hard work and perseverance have always been associated with intellectuals involved in academic study.

A renowned ancient scholar tied his hair to the house beam to keep himself awake in order to learn more. Another one pricked his thigh with an awl every time he started dozing off.

Such stories have inspired generations of scholars to devote themselves to higher learning. What they get in return is respect for their knowledge and vision.

It's fair to argue there can be a bad apple in any bunch. The fact there are a few of them in the Chinese academic circle, which swears by degrees and diplomas, has never really surprised us.

But a seemingly growing clientele ready to buy dissertations to pass them off as their own makes me nauseous. Just how low have we stooped for pieces of paper certifying our intelligence?

High school teachers and university graduates are being said to form a majority of the clientele.

While schoolteachers need to have papers published to secure a professional title, graduates need such papers to gain the bachelor or master degree.

High school teachers are not supposed to conduct academic research. Of course, they should be welcome to do so if they have enough energy after rigorous hours at school.

But it is undoubtedly unreasonable and ridiculous to make it compulsory for them to write these papers to get professional titles. As long as they do a good job as teachers, they should be qualified for professional titles. It is the laziest and most irresponsible way to judge teachers for appraisals.

Obviously, no good is coming out of it. The teachers are now buying the dissertations.

How can we expect them to resist the temptation of economic benefits that higher professional titles bring along?

The number of universities in China has gone up from about 50 in 1978 to nearly 2,000 now. The number of students on campus has increased from 300,000 in 1978 to about 20 million today.

It is unwise to require all students to write dissertations for higher education. It's wrong to assume all of them are capable of writing a thesis.

Writing dissertations is a way of training students on logical thinking and establishing their own creative argument.

It is a shame that students and teachers are purchasing such valuable papers that aim only to expand our minds.

But the entire blame lies with our system of education, which is making our citizens commit a sin in the name of intelligence.

Imagine a world where degrees, diplomas, appraisals and professional titles could be purchased. What would it matter who you are?

(China Daily 07/04/2009 page4)