Colleges are Struggling to Cope with Knowledge Fabrication

Universities are Busily Coming up with Verification Systems –

Administrative managers from the nation’s five prestigious universities, including Korea, Yonsei, Sogang, Sungkyunkwan, and Ewha universities, will get together on Wednesday and collaborate in drawing up measures to verify professors’ academic credentials.

If these universities present a unified verification system on academic records and certificates, other colleges and universities are expected to follow suit. In a separate move, each college is trying to present its own measures to screen out forged academic degrees. For instance, Yonsei University is set to introduce a three-step screening system similar to those in American colleges which will be applied to all future faculty members.

First, officials of a department with vacancies will make direct contact with a professor who had been in charge of a candidate and confirm if the candidate has actually obtained a degree. If the professor is impossible to be reached, they will attain a dissertation on the degree that was given through the university from which the candidate graduated. If the second method is also impossible, they will make an official request to the authorities of the university from which the candidate graduated to verify his or her academic credentials.

Korea University, which has inspected only doctoral degrees, plans to expand its scrutiny to master’s degrees with the cooperation of colleges from which candidates earned their degrees.

Chung-Ang University announced that it will investigate the academic background of all incumbent professors and lecturers.

Incheon City College is in the process of verifying 155 full-time professors, including nine who had attained doctoral degrees overseas during their vacation between 1995 and 1998, right after it became a city college.

In the case of Kyung Hee University, it will place the task of scrutiny in the hands of firms specializing in identifying the academic credentials of its professors.

Obstacles to Verification -

Some reputable overseas universities refuse to help domestic universities track candidates’ academic credentials on the grounds of violation of privacy.

In particular, if a candidate presents a fabricated certificate from a foreign university, even the Korea Research Foundation is unable to identify the authenticity of the certificates. This means that it’s up to the candidates’ conscience. Because of this difficulty, colleges and universities are calling for the government to take up the matter.

“We only get one to two replies from overseas colleges for every 10 e-mails we send asking for confirmation of candidates’ academic records and degrees. We need a system in which the Korea Research Foundation can request related foreign government agencies to cooperate with the verification process,” said Bae Jae-hyeon, a personnel manger at Sungkyunkwan University.

Classroom Disruption is Inevitable –

Colleges whose professors are involved in false academic credentials scandals are sweating to cancel subjects that the discredited professors had given lectures on or to recruit new lecturers to replace them ahead of the opening of the second semester.

Dankook University decided to call off “Culture and Identity,” one of the two courses professor Kim Ock-rang had given, and to replace her with a new professor for the other course, “Art Management.” But the university is still looking for a substitute lecturer. “We have difficulty in hiring a new professor since the scandal broke out right ahead of the start of the lecture,” said Choi Jong-tae, dean of business management department.

Dongguk University is also looking for a lecturer who will teach “History of Art,” replacing Shin Jeong-ah, an art history professor who was first revealed to have fabricated her academic credentials. “Art Management,” the other subject Shin taught, was cancelled.

Three courses that Lee Chang-ha, a former professor at Kimcheon Science College, had given will be taken over by other professors and lecturers. “Lee’s lectures were popular among students so they were very surprised at the news,” said an official at the college.

“Until the personnel committee makes its final decision, professor Jang Mi-hee will continue to give lectures,” said Gwon Du-seung in charge of admission at Myongji College. But if the committee decides to dismiss Jang, the class is likely to be disrupted.