Chinese students posing as liuxuesheng

[roddy]

Just caught this on the news. As many of us will know, for a foreigner to take a degree at a Chinese university all they need to do is graduate high school, get an HSK grade (usually very low) and pay the fees. No proof of great academic aptitude is necessary.

For Chinese students, it's a bit harder - you need to do well in the entrance exam, or else you won't get in to the university you want.

Solution for those Chinese students who can't get in? Leave the country, apply for a foreign passport (Vietnam and Malaysia are popular choices, it seems) and walk right in to the course that wouldn't have you a few month ago as a foreign student. Fees are going to be higher, but if your parents are well off it's managable and almost certainly still cheaper than going abroad to study.

[Language Guy]

This is interesting. But how demanding are universities? Would the students not quickly realize that they couldn't pass the entrance exam for a reason?

[wushijiao]

I also saw this item of news today in 东方早报. Shanghai University has kicked some of these students out.

http://www.dfdaily.com/dfchannels/dadoukuai/maiwaiguohuzhaozaizuguoliuxue-shangdajianjuejushou

I loved the use of 冒牌学生, "fake goods students". It's as if these fake students are like the fake DVD's and clothes you can buy.

I'm sure if this story becomes well known, well intentioned and honest ABC's studying at Chinese universities who are trying to get in touch with their roots will be treated with even more suspicion, as if they were cheating the system or something.

[roddy]

Surely what they should really be doing is making the foreign students also take the 高考? What's that folks? Changed your minds about a Chinese degree? Awww . . . .

[wushijiao]

Or they could interview any foreign or "foreign" students who want to get a regular degree. Or they could change the system so that a person's fate won't be decided by a one stupid test.

You have to wonder, if people who did fairly sh-tty on the gaokao were able to well in their actual university studies, does that reflect poorly on the gaokao or the universities?

[roddy]

I'd say the universities more than the test. When demand outstrips supply some of those excluded are going to be perfectly capable - it's just that others are more capable. It's the lack of capacity that's the problem rather than the test.

[geek_frappa]

Surely what they should really be doing is making the foreign students also take the 高考? What's that folks? Changed your minds about a Chinese degree? Awww . . . .

posting the score in newspapers and TV news reports would deter cheating too... and they should also introduce "negative" gaokao scores for those caught cheating on the gaokao (太糟糕 scores) ... incidentally, students were paying look-a-likes to take their TOEFLs for a while...

[a'long]

Well this is an interesting development, sounds like a lot of extra trouble, last time I checked all you needed to do to get into 北大 was to buy the dean a new car ;)

And really, once you get in and continue paying the tuition, what are the chances that you won't actually graduate? I've never heard of it.

Deter cheating on exams?? Now that's just crazy talk....

[geek_frappa]

Well this is an interesting development, sounds like a lot of extra trouble, last time I checked all you needed to do to get into 北大 was to buy the dean a new car ;)

hey, i want to put that chapter in my life behind me, and besides the dean let me borrow it on weekends.

interestingly enough, if your parents donate a lot of money to the universities, their offspring don't need to attend class. in fact, the professor will drive out to give the students classtime. very nice capitalist system here in the U.S. glad to see China is embracing freedom.

[ange9s]

If they have plenty of money, they should just go to an American University like everyone else with money. Something in this story reminded me that I considered trying to take an ESL class in college to pad my GPA, including making up a fictional country of origin so nobody could speak to me in "my" language.

[roddy]

There's plenty of people with money opting to go to universities not in America, especially since 2001 - partly because of visa hassles (relaxing now) and partly because of perceived danger and increasing awareness of other options. And study in the US would surely still be massively more expensive than in China?

But even if you do have money, that doesn't mean you necessarily want to go abroad.

[heifeng]

Something in this story reminded me that I considered trying to take an ESL class in college to pad my GPA....

CRAP that's practically what happen throughout college in all my Chinese Classes, everyone who came over from Taiwan when they were teens and decided to give their GPA a boost by pretending they couldn't read or write enrolled!!!! I think the teachers all knew, but without those students there would probably only be 3 students taking the Advanced Chinese classes (which would then be closed), so in hindsight I'm not really that bitter, they just kept the bar high that's all....

Anyway, it's a loophole in the Chinese system. If the students actually did obtain foreign citizenship then they are foreign students, right? If they have fake passports, well then it's another story....

[HashiriKata]

Anyway, it's a loophole in the Chinese system.

I don't think that anything that happens in China should then be called "Chinese". Here in the UK I've seen many foreign students taking their native language as a subject of studies along with their British classmates. Have you not seen all kinds of degrees offered for sale on the internet, originating mostly from Europe and America?

Sorry, I can't resist a plug in: Is there anyone here who has money, no brains and wants a Ph.D? Send me your money and we can talk business! I guarantee that your doctoral dissertation will be personally authored by me!

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

CRAP that's practically what happen throughout college in all my Chinese Classes, everyone who came over from Taiwan when they were teens and decided to give their GPA a boost by pretending they couldn't read or write enrolled!!!! I think the teachers all knew, but without those students there would probably only be 3 students taking the Advanced Chinese classes (which would then be closed), so in hindsight I'm not really that bitter, they just kept the bar high that's all....

im in third year chinese, and the last two years, there have been a lot of HK students, or kids that grew up learning cantonese, knowing how to write and speak pretty good.

this year, the kids walk out of the class speaking in mandarin naturally. one guy even told me he was from taiwan but he came here when he was thirteen. when we do oral reports, those guys just talk from materials they prepared yesterday, scoring high. Yours truely just passes with work that took all quarter. people make remarks about an hour before the quiz like "oh man, i havent read the characters yet" and then they brisk through them scoring high on the quiz. my story is different. one of my cantonese buddies who teaches me mandarin is now in chinese 2, and he says it is because he doesnt know how to write. but that is ok, my teachers are fair to me. my current teacher gives me special treatment at office hours, so i guess it balances out. But FWIW, i always felt that their placement exams are a little faulty. sorry if this is too far Off Topic.

[skylee]

Sorry, I can't resist a plug in: Is there anyone here who has money, no brains and wants a Ph.D? Send me your money and we can talk business! I guarantee that your doctoral dissertation will be personally authored by me!

A very tempting offer indeed.

[HashiriKata]

A very tempting offer indeed.

Thank you! I feel very honoured at the prospect of you being tempted but you've probably not studied the conditions of entry carefully enough: "no brains" is one.