Two national university professors were allegedly bribed to hire ghostwriters to produce their postgraduate students’ research papers so they could get their degrees. The extent of academic misconduct is jaw-dropping.
During the local elections in 2022, several politicians across party lines were accused of plagiarism. One was a council speaker, who had enrolled in an on-the-job postgraduate master’s program in the medical field, despite only finishing elementary school. His thesis was deemed plagiarism and revoked. As plagiarism controversies have involved both public and private institutions, it is vital to review the entire postgraduate education system.
Plagiarism has become less rampant thanks to the application of similarity detection software. Nevertheless, how could a person with only an elementary-level education get enrolled in a master’s program? This is because of the so-called “Wu Pao-chun clause,” which allows outstanding talent (such as world-class baker Wu) who do not have college degrees to pursue postgraduate studies. Finding it hard to recruit students, some universities have exploited the clause by defining prospective students as “distinguished people” to enroll them.
The Ministry of Education has worked on the issue, which has been gradually resolved. As such, the bribery and ghostwriting incident shocked many who thought the issue has been taken care of. The professors involved in the incident probably thought similarity detection software could not detect ghostwriting.
The incident indicates how corrupt a handful of professors could be. Every university should learn from this painful experience and exercise their gatekeeping duties to avoid further inflation of academic qualifications. Otherwise, supervisors who allow ghostwriting would become popular among students, while those who are serious about their jobs could only lament the chaos. Some might say the best solution would be to replace theses with technical reports, but plagiarism and ghostwriting remain a risk.
On-the-job postgraduate master’s programs usually charge students more and pay teachers more than regular postgraduate programs. Hence, they have become a shortcut for universities to source funding and improve the pay conditions of teaching staff. That might be why some teachers favor relaxing admission requirements and lowering the standards of assignments and research papers. However, that worsens the inflation of academic qualifications. It is important to insist on the quality of higher education and not exclude on-the-job postgraduate master’s programs in the stringent gatekeeping process.
Such programs can take a more practical approach in teaching, but it does not mean they can muddle through by replacing lessons with frequent site visits. It is the same with a thesis or technical report. Allowing a practice-oriented approach is not equal to allowing plagiarism, ghostwriting or tolerating below standard research papers.
These programs should not be a means to accumulate wealth. Instead, the revenue should be invested in the development and operation of the whole institution. Although there is no problem with providing extra subsidies to lecturers or professors who teach on holidays, the lessons should be included in normal teaching hours. The hourly rate should not be too high to avoid teachers pleasing students by relaxing requirements. There are many good quality postgraduate schools and honest thesis supervisors, but a few misbehaving people are enough to disgrace the whole academic field. A full review of the education system is vital to nurture talent in Taiwan.
Wang Chih-chien is a distinguished professor at National Taipei University’s Graduate Institute of Information Management.
Translated by Fion Khan
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