Fake Degrees and Titles Hurt Foreign Teachers in China

A particularly memorable occasion when I encountered the use of fake degrees and titles among foreign teachers in China was some six years ago shortly after I had arrived in the city of Haikou.

I had the opportunity to meet another foreigner for the first time when I entered a local restaurant to pick up some lunch. He and his girlfriend had already ordered and had just been served. He invited me over to join them and during the course of introductions described himself as a professor.

Of course, I was curious and asked him what discipline he was a professor of. He seemed surprised by the question and, in so many words, eventually explained that he had assigned himself the rank of full professor on the basis of having taught oral English at a public Chinese university for four months before being terminated. I would later learn that his field of expertise was in "mechanical engineering," i.e., he had worked for 30 years in the military as a plane mechanic. Apparently, his current private school employer was sufficiently satisfied with his qualifications to have "conferred" upon him a fake bachelor's degree in engineering.

I wish, for all our sakes, I could say this was the first and last time I had encountered the use of fake degrees and titles in China but, unfortunately, that is not the case.

My first year in China, while living and working in the city of Shenyang, I was aware of one private school that routinely issued fake degrees to all its non-degreed foreign employees as a matter of practice because the local PSB was a bit fussy about only issuing Z-visas and residency permits to foreigners with college degrees.

Quite recently, I had a series of discussions with another foreign teacher in China who actually uses the title "professor" in his e-mail signature even though he had never taught one day in his life at a university before arriving in China (nor would he be qualified for an academic appointment at any level in either the States or China). His justification for doing so is that he possesses an advanced degree in a non-related field and his current university employer "doesn't mind." Given his older age and genuine dedication to his students, it's an honorary title he truly believes he deserves and has every right to use. The fact that "Professor of Oral English" has no meaning in China or anywhere else in the world is apparently lost on him.

When I made a point of mentioning my dismay over this particular case of academic mockery, if not fraud, with yet another foreign teacher, his response was no less disheartening: "Well, the Chinese don't care very much about these things and aren't very formal about academic ranks." Aside from feeling disturbed by his failure to appreciate the damaging effect of this to all of us, I knew—of course—that this statement couldn't be any further from the truth.

My personal observation has been that the Chinese probably care more about university alma maters and academic ranks than our own Western countries do. What they don't care about is the teaching of English as a foreign language and, consequently, Chinese academic administrators simply don't take their foreign English teachers very seriously. Unfortunately, it appears that there are more than a couple of us who have decided to exploit that disregard and capitalize on our relegated status as outsiders for the sake of their own self-aggrandizement.

What is the problem with using academic titles here that we haven't earned and could never use without serious consequences either as a real academic in China or back home?

The answer as I see it is that it perpetuates and reinforces the very disregard and disrespect that Chinese university and private school administrators already hold for their foreign teachers. It capitalizes on the fact that the Chinese don't regard us as real educators but as a necessary evil to either meet their national exposure to a native-speaker requirement or as a marketing tool (in the case of private language schools). In addition, doing so both insults and undermines the integrity of the real Western academicians in China who were genuine associate and full professors back home.

What is the problem with using fake degrees? In addition to the apparently not-so-obvious ethical problem, the answer is related to the one above: It perpetuates the ubiquitous perception among Chinese school owners, university administrators, not to mention our own students, that foreign teachers are not real teachers but, at best, friendly visitors and, at worst, performing monkeys. Obviously, any private school or recruiter that proffers fake degrees to its foreign teachers is expressing nothing but contempt for all of us. Any foreign teacher who uses a fake degree to obtain employment or naively accepts one in China is actively lending justification to this professional disregard and disrespect.

If you don't have a real degree, don't even consider using a fake one in China. In the end, it hurts all of us. And if your university is turning a blind eye to your use of an "honorary academic title," don't for one moment delude yourself into believing that this is an indication of positive regard or special status. Just the opposite, it means that your university administrators secretly regard you as a complete outsider and total academic joke.