I’ve only been teaching at a university here in China for four years, but it’s pretty obvious to me that there’s no way this draft regulation is going to be enforced:

University students and doctoral candidates are to be disqualified if they are found to have committed plagiarism or fraud, and could face a further ban from obtaining other degrees for three years, according to a draft regulation.

In an effort to curb fraud and plagiarism in higher-learning institutions, the Ministry of Education began soliciting public opinion on draft regulations that will govern how those who commit such infractions will be punished.

Degrees that have already been awarded shall be revoked if such misconduct is found, the proposals stipulate.

Colleges shall set up an independent investigation institution to identify fraudulent activity in degree granting, but the legitimate rights of those suspected of academic wrongdoing should be protected, the draft adds.

The State Council or provincial academic degree committees shall revoke higher-learning institutions’ right to grant degrees if multiple academic fraud cases are spotted, according to the proposed regulation.

“Degree applicants at our college will be disqualified if 20 percent of the content they write is found to be plagiarized. It varies among different institutions. So a national standard is needed,” said a lecturer surnamed Chen from Hebei University.

There is no specific definition as to what constitutes plagiarism or fraud in the regulations.

Hmm. You know, call me crazy, but it might be useful to actually define the infraction. You know, since the punishment is expulsion and schools can be shut down and all. Just saying.

Look, I’m all for a crackdown on plagiarism. It’s rampant here, with many students and professors seeing it as perfectly acceptable behavior. But threatening expulsion or closing schools just screams “This is utter bilge that will never be enforced.” The idea that a university would be shut down over this is laughable.

What would be better? How about a real policy that is enforced, something with proportionate punishment? Perhaps if a student is found submitting a plagiarized research paper, that’s an automatic zero in that class? Zero tolerance. For professors? Maybe one violation leads to probation, and the next means they get fired.

Gotta start somewhere. We can’t keep having rules about academic misconduct that are ignored.

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Post tags: academic misconduct, plagiarism