The Tainan District Court yesterday approved prosecutors’ request to detain the dean of Nan Jeon University of Science and Technology and his wife for allegedly selling diplomas from Costa Rica’s University of Empresarial.
The prosecutors said they received a tip-off that 58-year-old Huang Tsung-liang (黃聰亮) was providing fake academic degrees — including diplomas and dissertations — from the University of Empresarial to school instructors.
Huang allegedly sold doctoral degrees for about NT$700,000 and master’s degrees for NT$400,000, and also told instructors that he sold papers which would enable their promotion for NT$150,000 to NT$550,000, prosecutors said.
They said Huang made a profit of NT$6 million from the sales of the fake degrees and papers.
Prosecutors on Wednesday night conducted raids on the school’s campuses and confiscated account books, fake diplomas and fake dissertations.
Prosecutors yesterday filed detention requests for Huang and his wife, surnamed Wu (吳), while setting bail for a Nan Jeon human resources director, surnamed Hsiao (蕭), a research and development division head, surnamed Liu (劉), and five other people at between NT$50,000 and NT$500,000.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education set up a task force to look into all promotions of instructors who had worked for Huang, adding that its efforts would not only target Nan Jeon, but that other universities would also be investigated.
The ministry has requested that Nan Jeon’s board of directors reconsider Huang’s suitability as dean, considering that his actions have tarnished the school’s reputation and academia as a whole, Deputy Minister of Education Chen Der-hwa (陳德華) said.
The ministry is looking into how many people are involved in the scandal, Department of Higher Education Director Nicole Lee (李彥儀) said.
Any instructors who were promoted with fake degrees would have their promotions revoked and would not being eligible for further academic promotion for seven to 10 years, while professors who were promoted using faked documents would not be eligible for promotion for one to five years, Lee said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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