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Check campus cheating

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-03 07:46

Chinese academia is plagued by cheating. And, cheats no longer feel ashamed even when caught. They may appear wronged instead. "Why should I be singled out when everybody's doing the same?" For people who believe that mass violations can nullify the law, there is no better retort.

When professors plagiarize without a sense of shame, when students copycat boldly and assuredly, you may wonder: Who is to blame?

Cheating is nothing glorious in a normal setting. Cheats, therefore, should at least feel guilty. Dishonesty is the last thing we expect of professors, no matter what. In addition to knowledge, they share an obligation to set decent, if not noble, personal examples. Our culture reveres teachers. But, there is a prerequisite: they should, in the first place, be fine moral examples. The craft of teaching is not just about imparting knowledge. Teachers are venerated as "engineers of human souls", and this is not without good reason.

Yet while society gets increasingly impatient about the frequent scandals of academic corruption, academic circles appeared to simply go with the trend.

Is it because, as some insist, cheating has become so prevalent that many have had a brush with the dirty business at one stage or another? Nobody can tell. We have the feeling that original research is increasingly rare despite the abundance of "academic work" that is visible. The endless stream of scandals of academic cheating reinforces the popular impression that such dishonesty is no longer about isolated cases.

Cheating is a malicious tumor in the body of the Chinese academia. No excuse can justify it.

The authorities have displayed resolve to deal with the problem. And, various procedures have been conceived to identify frauds. Yet we all know they will not suffice to prevent malpractices.

Those in decision-making positions may be shocked to hear the young professor who told the China Youth Daily that people have no choice but to cheat. Of course, one can refuse to cheat.

Still, there is something worth deliberating upon. According to the young professor, the quotas in evaluating their performance have shifted the focus of assessment from quality to quantity. Since a professor's academic capabilities are gauged according to the classes taught, the number of theses published, the number of times his or her theses were quoted, sponsorship received, and so on, the pressure is real.

The omni-presence of cheating is a warning sign that excessive and single-minded emphasis on quantity is doing more damage than good. This has resulted in proliferation of cheating.

When cheats become winners and are rewarded with all the benefits of "academic excellence", we cannot but look askance at the system.

(China Daily 08/03/2009 page4)