Fake diplomas, forged term papers and other methods of
falsification emerging in colleges and universities will have
far-reaching negative effects, according to a report based in
Shanxi Province.
Exams, term papers and employment, long considered bastions of
college life, are key methods used to reflect and testify to the
effectiveness of higher education. But, with the proliferation of
cheating techniques, these bastions are turning into a "broad
road".
While university and college authorities attempt to strictly
enforce examination protocols, there are still many students who
try to cheat the system. According to one student at a university
in Shanxi, practicing fraud has become a trend, with only a few
students living "on their own labor". Most other students cope with
the strain of exams by cheating.
One popular cheating method is to go into an exam with a palm-sized
sheet of paper filled with "key points" from lectures and answers
from textbooks. More important exams, like the PETS (Public English
Test System) for post-graduate level entrance, require more
advanced cheating techniques. Equipped with beepers or mobile
phones attached to hidden earphones, students pair up with more
qualified peers who complete the exam early and then send answers
from the outside, through phone or beeper messages.
Apart from exams, cheating also occurs in term papers and design
work. Some college professors acknowledge seeing entire essays and
articles copied off the Internet or from research journals.
Cheating students help each other by marking "copied" on published
papers that they have already used.
A
third-year female student in an economics department at one
university admits that because of the lack of periodicals in their
library, her classmates will even go "for help" to other libraries
at nearby Universities. And, according to a professor at a
technology institute, for design assignments where the results and
calculations do not vary, out of every 10 students, only one or two
will take the time to do the work on their own; the rest just
copy.
As
the competition for good job requiring special certificates and
university diplomas increases, so does the market for forged
documents. In a print shop close to one technology institute in
Shanxi, samples of different award certificates replete with
genuine-looking covers and special paper, are readily available for
perusal.
The shop owner explains how his shop can "give out an award" to a
student. The store keeps original copies of more than ten different
genuine certificates on a computer. When a student needs one, the
employees just scan the original certificate, change the name on
the computer, print it out and sell it to the student.
One female employee says more computer competent students will
transfer a scanned certificate onto their own disks and make the
changes by themselves. Arts students, she says, are clumsier, and
so can only muddle through the simplest duplication on their
own.
Upon entering university, previously hard working students quickly
forget the advice of college veterans to, "keep down to earth,
study hard, don't horse around and cheat."
According to an informal survey, there are 13 twenty-four hour
Internet bars and two video parlors in the immediate vicinity of
Shanxi University. These businesses do their best to keep their
services up-to-date, attracting evermore entertainment-hungry,
cyber-addicted college students. After long hours of such fun, who
can help but skip school or sleep in class?
Apart from the temptations of the cyber-world, the search for love
keeps students busy as well. No matter what the demands of studying
may be, young couples find ample time to roam "among the flowers
and under the moon." And others just spend their class time reading
novels or writing letters. With their study time so scattered, it
is not hard to see why the lure of cheating and forging is becoming
stronger.
Some educators say a bad social environment is not the only cause
of cheating. They put the blame on a bad academic atmosphere.
Underpaid college instructors often pad their salaries by taking on
extra lecturing or pursuing business opportunities in fields such
as insurance. In class, they either only repeat what is in the
books, or talk randomly. Other teachers are too busy preparing
their own Master's or Doctoral examinations to bother much about
teaching.
As
for maintaining strict measures against cheating students, some
professors would rather turn a blind eye. One teacher affiliated
with the Commission of Teaching Direction in Shanxi, tells of a
case last year in which a female student held up her exam paper so
that the student sitting behind her could copy. The supervisor in
charge of the examination let this conduct pass. When asked about
it by the commission, he responded that graduating students were
too busy to prepare for their exams. He asked the Commission to
"please give the wrongdoer a way out".
In
another case, involving student cheaters in a music department, the
management of the institution strove to cover up the incident,
furious with the teachers of the Commission for exposing them.
Many professors regard outdated university management as a chief
cause of increased cheating. They point out that management rules
are becoming a bottleneck for much needed changes.
According to regulations, students have to score their professors'
performance at the end of the school term. Professors who score
poorly may have their bonus withheld. This system not only
encourages students who cheat, but professors who are reluctant to
offend them, often let fake papers and copied exams pass through.
At one university, a professor who often makes students re-write
papers that are forged, has become persona non grata in his
classes. Students call him "Iron face".
The workload of teachers also becomes a factor. Some Shanxi
universities demand that teachers complete over 280 class hours,
including lectures, experiments, practicals and term paper
advising. With the heavy workload, many teachers and tutors don't
want to "waste time" verifying the sources of work handed in by
students.
No
one would disagree that the rampant cheating and falsification by
students is a problem. The solution? Some people would say
university managers should take the lead in launching new testing
and supervising measures, in hiring more qualified teachers and
reducing their workload constraints.
(人民網[People.com.cn],
translated by Liliangdu for china.org.cn, June 3, 2002)