Opinion | Actor Zhai Tianlin’s plagiarism scandal underlines the failures of China’s university system
- The case highlights Chinese people’s obsession with higher degrees, preferably with a foreign pedigree, but also shakes confidence in local institutions, which emphasise rapid research output and are plagued by plagiarism and low-quality writing
Zhai’s woes began when internet users dug up an academic paper he wrote, 40.4 per cent of which was found to have been plagiarised from another author’s work published in 2006. In addition to Zhai being penalised, his adviser at the Beijing Film Academy will not be allowed to supervise doctoral candidates.
While the Ministry of Education is paying attention to the matter and both implicated schools are looking into their academic review processes, this incident will hopefully be a huge wake-up call for China’s higher education sector.
We must first ask: what is the value system that drives people with significant achievements to pursue the halo of an advanced degree, sometimes unrelated to their own main profession, even at the expense of integrity? However, perhaps the greater question is: why can’t a degree-obsessed society develop more truly world-class universities?
Over the years, based on my conversations with many educators and admission specialists, and my own experience of facing endless requests from parents to help their children get into Ivy League universities, I have come to understand that the mentality of many Chinese people is diametrically opposed to what I think a good education, or a degree from a prestigious American university, involves. While these zealous parents and students are attempting to escape the trappings of the “repressive” Chinese education system, they are effectively projecting a skewed world view onto universities in the United States.
