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May 16, 2006
Study: 60% of Chinese Ph.D. Candidates Admit to Plagiarism, Bribery
In a story related to yesterday's post, as well as the HanXin （汉芯）chip scandal, the Christian Science Monitor reports on a Chinese government study of 180 Ph.D. candidates which found that fully 60% admitted to plagiarism and bribery. Can it be possible? Are Chinese academic standards really so very low, when Western instructors both in Chinese and American institutions of higher learning have generally viewed their Chinese students as upon the proverbial pedestal?
If true, American companies building R&D facilities in China, several of whom have been clients, need to pay heightened attention to the trustworthiness of the work their new hires purport to have performed as well as the reliability of results obtained in their own labs.
For modern-day mainland Chinese, does the goal and one's pursuit of it validate any means of obtaining it, including the purposeful obscuration of the truth?
Comments
"Are Chinese academic standards really so very low, when Western instructors both in Chinese and American institutions of higher learning have generally viewed their Chinese students as upon the proverbial pedestal?"
This may not be as contradictory as it first seems. Maybe the idealized view of Chinese students led to unrealistic expectations that created pressures to cheat. For example, the American plagarists Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass both said it was pressures to excel that brought them to fabricate.
In the words of Stephen Glass, "I wanted them to think I was a good journalist…a good person. I wanted them to love the story so they would love me.”
This behavior is, of course, nowhere near excusable or acceptable. But perhaps it is understandable.
Posted by: Sophia Ong ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.asiabizblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 18, 2006 9:50 PM
Well put. On the other hand, dignity is one's adherence to honorable conduct in the face of exactly such pressures.
Posted by: Editor, Asia Business Intelligence at May 19, 2006 5:12 PM
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