In China the national entrance exam for admission to university has been considered an almost sacred rite of passage that each year decides the fates of another class of students.
In today’s China, though, this exam is increasingly becoming compromised by cheating, part of a general trend that afflicts China’s entire higher education system.
Take the case of the exam administered last year in Songyuan, a small town in Northeast China’s Jilin Province where systematic, almost public cheating used high-tech methods that have been favored in recent years.
According to investigative reporting by the China Youth newspaper, in Songyuan the equipment students used to cheat with was sold at 5,000 yuan (US$747), and the transfer of exam answers was sold separately, at 16,000–40,000 yuan (US$2,391–$5,978), with the final cost depending on how high the resulting scores were.
Prior to the exam, ads for “exam devices” were posted in public places in town, and two teachers were involved in selling the devices, making 800,000 yuan (US$119,572) in a few days. Exam candidates received phone calls to their homes just like telemarketing calls.
Also in Songyuan, old-style copying was taken to a new height. The student who was cheating would pay another student to copy his or her exams; the monitoring teachers were often paid as well. The cost of one exam can range from 3,000 to 50,000 yuan (US$448–$7473).
Monitoring teachers do not dare interfere fearing the students will retaliate. In 2008, a monitoring teacher in Songyuan was beaten up by a student’s parents for enforcing exam rules.
Not all copying was arranged well in advance. The China Youth report described a student, ranked second in his class, having his exam ripped away from him by another student to copy — he was unable to finish the exam.
The authorities in Songyuan confirmed 29 cases of cheating, with six using surrogates, and the rest using high-tech devices. Fifteen people were arrested for selling the devices.
The number of cases of cheating confirmed by the authorities does not seem to match the scope of the cheating reported by China Youth. Payoffs to officials and the high level of technology used in cheating may explain the discrepancy.
Continued on the next page...
In today’s China, though, this exam is increasingly becoming compromised by cheating, part of a general trend that afflicts China’s entire higher education system.
Take the case of the exam administered last year in Songyuan, a small town in Northeast China’s Jilin Province where systematic, almost public cheating used high-tech methods that have been favored in recent years.
According to investigative reporting by the China Youth newspaper, in Songyuan the equipment students used to cheat with was sold at 5,000 yuan (US$747), and the transfer of exam answers was sold separately, at 16,000–40,000 yuan (US$2,391–$5,978), with the final cost depending on how high the resulting scores were.
Prior to the exam, ads for “exam devices” were posted in public places in town, and two teachers were involved in selling the devices, making 800,000 yuan (US$119,572) in a few days. Exam candidates received phone calls to their homes just like telemarketing calls.
Also in Songyuan, old-style copying was taken to a new height. The student who was cheating would pay another student to copy his or her exams; the monitoring teachers were often paid as well. The cost of one exam can range from 3,000 to 50,000 yuan (US$448–$7473).
Monitoring teachers do not dare interfere fearing the students will retaliate. In 2008, a monitoring teacher in Songyuan was beaten up by a student’s parents for enforcing exam rules.
Not all copying was arranged well in advance. The China Youth report described a student, ranked second in his class, having his exam ripped away from him by another student to copy — he was unable to finish the exam.
The authorities in Songyuan confirmed 29 cases of cheating, with six using surrogates, and the rest using high-tech devices. Fifteen people were arrested for selling the devices.
The number of cases of cheating confirmed by the authorities does not seem to match the scope of the cheating reported by China Youth. Payoffs to officials and the high level of technology used in cheating may explain the discrepancy.
Continued on the next page...
In Songyuan, the high-tech cheating required that a team be in place to work the exam. Those who provided the device arranged to have someone take the exam, using a hidden micro camera to scan the exam sheets. Once the questions were brought outside, hired hands would work on them quickly and transmit the answers via voice or text to the receivers. Students paid for and tested the receivers ahead of time.
The use of these high-tech devices is widespread in China. The Wuhan Evening News (Wuhan is located in Hubei Province in central China) reported high-tech cheating devices used in national entrance exams, including grain-size receivers that fit inside the ear, vibrating receivers installed on different parts of the body, pens that have hidden digital screens, watches that acted as receivers, and erasers with hidden devices.
In the case of Songyuan, a new type of receiver was used inside the mouth, with the voice transmitted through the bones to the ear.
As high-tech exam cheating has become more widespread, methods and technologies for defeating cheating have also been growing, threatening to transform exam rooms through the installation of metal detectors, electronic signal shields, radio detectors, and the verification of national IDs.
Inside the several universities Wang investigated, poster boards and ads were all over campuses and around student dorms selling English exam answers. The ads promised free retries if the answers were not received by students using the high-tech equipment and even offered money back should the device fail, just like a regular business.
Cheating was so commonplace that the students spoke freely with the reporter, showing him the process of obtaining and testing the electronic cheating devices, which took place in semi-public settings. The universities turn a blind eye to it, as the students’ high scores reflect positively on the universities.
Wang commented that the students involved were “so accustomed [to cheating] that they considered it natural.”
Continued on the thrid page...
On May 12, blogger Xiao Xiao published a post on Tianya website titled “The boldest thesis plagiarism in history,” describing two identical Master’s theses she discovered in literature research.
The 2007 thesis “FEEEP Coordination Study in Shandong Province” by Yuan Xin of Northeast Finance and Economics University was almost identical to the 2006 thesis “FEEEP Coordination Study in Jiangsu Province” from Nanjing Financial Economics University — the only differences were the names of the provinces.
Northeast Finance and Economics University investigated the thesis by Yuan Xin and confirmed his plagiarism. According to Jinghua Daily, the university’s degree committee decided on May 27 to withdraw Yuan’s master’s degree and retract his graduation diploma.
Soon, China Youth Newspaper published an article, “Even bolder than ‘the boldest thesis plagiarism in history.’” In this case, the 2004 thesis “On Media Monitoring of Financial and Economic Fields” by Hu Chunlin of Central China Normal University was identical to a 2003 thesis by the same title.
“Other than the acknowledgments, the two theses have identical titles, Chinese and English abstracts, key words, content, notes, and references,” said the article in China Youth.
Hu Chulin admitted that he plagiarized and his master’s degree was revoked. His current workplace, Hubei Industrial University, gave him an “administrative warning.”
Plagiarism of doctorate dissertations is less frequent than of master’s theses, but still occurs. NetEase, a popular web portal, reported, for example, that Hu Liming, professor of East China Polytechnic Institute, had his doctorate degree revoked for plagiarism in his dissertation.
Jiawen (a pseudonym) recently graduated with a master’s degree in Business Administration in Beijing. She explained several factors involved in cheating on a master’s thesis or doctorate dissertation.
“Many graduate students do not get to see their advisers, who focus their time on money-making projects,” she said. Poor quality advising is only compounded by the lowered qualifications required of some students.
China has become the top producer of masters and doctorates in recent years, but academic cheating has been on the rise at the same time. “There are two kinds of cheaters, those who are not interested in academics but only in money, and those who do not have the capacity to produce,” Jiawen said.
“Students find their peers plagiarizing without being punished, so they do the same. All were ‘fish falling out of the net,’ as the law does not punish the many,” she said.
Just like exam cheating, the market for plagiarism is well-developed. “The ‘hired guns’ will write a thesis or dissertation for others. They advertise on websites, via QQ [a popular Internet chat program] or MSN numbers. A master’s thesis is priced at 5,000 yuan (US$747) and doctorate dissertation at 20,000 yuan (US$2,989).”
One such “hired gun” site, Gunners Alliance, has this notice for interested customers: They should provide phone numbers; the non-negotiable price is set at the lowest possible rate; partial payment is required first; customers should comment carefully on the draft, and “revision requests must be sent in seven days.”
This is part one of a three-part series. Please look for part two in next week’s paper.
The use of these high-tech devices is widespread in China. The Wuhan Evening News (Wuhan is located in Hubei Province in central China) reported high-tech cheating devices used in national entrance exams, including grain-size receivers that fit inside the ear, vibrating receivers installed on different parts of the body, pens that have hidden digital screens, watches that acted as receivers, and erasers with hidden devices.
In the case of Songyuan, a new type of receiver was used inside the mouth, with the voice transmitted through the bones to the ear.
As high-tech exam cheating has become more widespread, methods and technologies for defeating cheating have also been growing, threatening to transform exam rooms through the installation of metal detectors, electronic signal shields, radio detectors, and the verification of national IDs.
English Exams
Once a student manages, honestly or dishonestly, to pass the university entrance exam, he or she is likely to find widespread cheating at the university level.
Inside the several universities Wang investigated, poster boards and ads were all over campuses and around student dorms selling English exam answers. The ads promised free retries if the answers were not received by students using the high-tech equipment and even offered money back should the device fail, just like a regular business.
Cheating was so commonplace that the students spoke freely with the reporter, showing him the process of obtaining and testing the electronic cheating devices, which took place in semi-public settings. The universities turn a blind eye to it, as the students’ high scores reflect positively on the universities.
Wang commented that the students involved were “so accustomed [to cheating] that they considered it natural.”
Continued on the thrid page...
‘Boldest’ Plagiarism
On May 12, blogger Xiao Xiao published a post on Tianya website titled “The boldest thesis plagiarism in history,” describing two identical Master’s theses she discovered in literature research.
The 2007 thesis “FEEEP Coordination Study in Shandong Province” by Yuan Xin of Northeast Finance and Economics University was almost identical to the 2006 thesis “FEEEP Coordination Study in Jiangsu Province” from Nanjing Financial Economics University — the only differences were the names of the provinces.
Northeast Finance and Economics University investigated the thesis by Yuan Xin and confirmed his plagiarism. According to Jinghua Daily, the university’s degree committee decided on May 27 to withdraw Yuan’s master’s degree and retract his graduation diploma.
Soon, China Youth Newspaper published an article, “Even bolder than ‘the boldest thesis plagiarism in history.’” In this case, the 2004 thesis “On Media Monitoring of Financial and Economic Fields” by Hu Chunlin of Central China Normal University was identical to a 2003 thesis by the same title.
“Other than the acknowledgments, the two theses have identical titles, Chinese and English abstracts, key words, content, notes, and references,” said the article in China Youth.
Hu Chulin admitted that he plagiarized and his master’s degree was revoked. His current workplace, Hubei Industrial University, gave him an “administrative warning.”
Market for Plagiarism
Plagiarism of doctorate dissertations is less frequent than of master’s theses, but still occurs. NetEase, a popular web portal, reported, for example, that Hu Liming, professor of East China Polytechnic Institute, had his doctorate degree revoked for plagiarism in his dissertation.
Jiawen (a pseudonym) recently graduated with a master’s degree in Business Administration in Beijing. She explained several factors involved in cheating on a master’s thesis or doctorate dissertation.
“Many graduate students do not get to see their advisers, who focus their time on money-making projects,” she said. Poor quality advising is only compounded by the lowered qualifications required of some students.
China has become the top producer of masters and doctorates in recent years, but academic cheating has been on the rise at the same time. “There are two kinds of cheaters, those who are not interested in academics but only in money, and those who do not have the capacity to produce,” Jiawen said.
“Students find their peers plagiarizing without being punished, so they do the same. All were ‘fish falling out of the net,’ as the law does not punish the many,” she said.
Just like exam cheating, the market for plagiarism is well-developed. “The ‘hired guns’ will write a thesis or dissertation for others. They advertise on websites, via QQ [a popular Internet chat program] or MSN numbers. A master’s thesis is priced at 5,000 yuan (US$747) and doctorate dissertation at 20,000 yuan (US$2,989).”
One such “hired gun” site, Gunners Alliance, has this notice for interested customers: They should provide phone numbers; the non-negotiable price is set at the lowest possible rate; partial payment is required first; customers should comment carefully on the draft, and “revision requests must be sent in seven days.”
This is part one of a three-part series. Please look for part two in next week’s paper.
