《华尔街日报》中文网专稿（阅读本文的英文版请点击这里）
袁莉
在约1,000多年的时间里，中国的官僚机构基本上是由在科举考试中上榜的人组成。近代以来，大学、尤其是顶级高等教育学府，依然是培育政府官员的摇篮。中国共产党中央政治局九名常务委员中，有三人毕业于清华大学（胡锦涛、吴邦国和习近平），一人毕业于北京大学（李克强）。
这就是近期中国公众关于前微软中国总裁、畅销书作者唐骏被指篡改学历的讨论背景。这个所谓的“学历门”丑闻始于本月初。以批判剽窃和学术欺诈而出名的科普作家方舟子称唐骏所称获得的加州理工大学(California Institute of Technology)的博士学位是假的。
方舟子说，唐骏在其畅销书《我的成功可以复制》中声称自己毕业于加州理工大学，他试着查证此事，并给这所大学打了电话，但未发现唐骏的毕业记录。
现任新华都实业集团首席执行长的唐骏否认说过自己毕业于加州理工大学，并于7月6日告诉中国媒体他毕业于另一所大学。“我无论在任何时候、任何场合，… 从来没有说我在加州理工大学拿到过博士，但是我确实在加州理工大学曾经有过一段研究经验。”他说他最后拿到了私立西太平洋大学(Pacific Western University)的博士学位。加州理工大学的一位代表告诉《华尔街日报》说，唐骏不是毕业于该校。
在接受中国媒体采访的同一天，唐骏对自己约70万新浪微博粉丝写道：“第一，今后我的名片上会加印一个博士在名字后。第二，法律会让现在和今后那些捏造事实污陷他人者付出代价。第三，我还是我，什么都没改变……”在那之后他没有再发过微博，给新华都要求置评的电子邮件和电话均无回复。
关于这件事的辩论在中国仍在继续，部分原因是美国国会调查机构──美国政府问责局(Government Accountability Office,简称GAO)在2004年的一份报告中说，西太平洋大学是一所“文凭作坊”。报告说，该校未被政府认可，学生交钱便可拿到学位，不需要上课。西太平洋大学后来改名为加州米拉马大学( California Miramar University)。加州米拉马大学学生事务办公室说，该校已经更换了管理层，是与西太平洋大学完全独立的学校。
虽然出版社已经解释了错误的原因，但中国媒体似乎还是在不停地重复方舟子有关唐骏的种种指控，这是因为假学历这个话题在中国显然是触及到了敏感神经。
直到15、20年前，大多数中国人的工作都是靠政府分配的，而且每份工作几乎都是铁饭碗，是要干一辈子的。文凭是政府在分配工作时可以依据的少数几个衡量标准之一。即便是现在，政府机构和国有企业给本科生和博士生的工资标准通常是不一样的，一些职位还只限高学历的人担任。
耶鲁大学管理学院金融学教授陈志武说，这是个供需问题，当社会将文凭看得极重时，就会有人不惜冒险去满足这样的要求，很遗憾，有人看到收益超过风险时会决定走捷径。
对于那些没有门路的人来说，从全国各地的黑市上获得假文凭也是轻而易举的事。知名大学的文凭只要几百元人民币（不那么知名的大学文凭价格反而要高一些，因为缺乏规模效应）。据新华社旗下一家报纸2004年的一篇报导，中央政府在清查全国67万名中层干部文凭的行动中发现，每40名干部就有一人的文凭有问题，从假文凭到虚报学历等等都有。
欧美高校的文凭受承认程度与中国国内的大学相近，甚至更高。十几二十年前，只有极少数中国人有机会出国留学，获得西方大学的学位则可以叩开许多机遇的大门。
当然，假文凭或虚报学历的情况并非中国独有。美国政府问责局2004年的报告发现，28名联邦政府高级官员的学历来自“文凭作坊”或者其他不具备资质的学校，并认为实际数字应该会更高。
全球知名学府的学位在很多国家都是好用的敲门砖也是不争的事实。美国迄今44任总统中有八位曾就读于哈佛大学(Harvard University)。高管猎头公司Spencer Stuart的一项调查显示，2004年以前，哈佛大学是标准普尔500(S&P 500)公司CEO就读最多的学校。2008年，哈佛大学与威斯康星大学(University of Wisconsin)大学打平。
袁莉
在
许多国家，一个人上的哪所大学、拿的什么文凭对职业前景和社会地位都有重要影响，但在中国，这种影响尤其重大。长期以来，学历一直是决定许多中国人命运的最重要因素之一。在约1,000多年的时间里，中国的官僚机构基本上是由在科举考试中上榜的人组成。近代以来，大学、尤其是顶级高等教育学府，依然是培育政府官员的摇篮。中国共产党中央政治局九名常务委员中，有三人毕业于清华大学（胡锦涛、吴邦国和习近平），一人毕业于北京大学（李克强）。
这就是近期中国公众关于前微软中国总裁、畅销书作者唐骏被指篡改学历的讨论背景。这个所谓的“学历门”丑闻始于本月初。以批判剽窃和学术欺诈而出名的科普作家方舟子称唐骏所称获得的加州理工大学(California Institute of Technology)的博士学位是假的。
方舟子说，唐骏在其畅销书《我的成功可以复制》中声称自己毕业于加州理工大学，他试着查证此事，并给这所大学打了电话，但未发现唐骏的毕业记录。
现任新华都实业集团首席执行长的唐骏否认说过自己毕业于加州理工大学，并于7月6日告诉中国媒体他毕业于另一所大学。“我无论在任何时候、任何场合，… 从来没有说我在加州理工大学拿到过博士，但是我确实在加州理工大学曾经有过一段研究经验。”他说他最后拿到了私立西太平洋大学(Pacific Western University)的博士学位。加州理工大学的一位代表告诉《华尔街日报》说，唐骏不是毕业于该校。
关于“来来往往”
“来来往往”专栏尝试用西方人熟悉的语言与语境写中国商业文化。专栏每两周在《华尔街日报》报纸及网络版以中英文双语同步发表。专栏作者袁莉2004年在纽约加入《华尔街日报》，先后担任记者和专栏作者。她2008年回到北京担任《华尔街日报》中文网主编。袁莉毕业于哥伦比亚大学和乔治•华盛顿大学，并曾在新华社担任编辑以及驻泰国和阿富汗记者。欢迎读者发送邮件至li.yuan@wsj.com或在评论栏中发表评论和建议，也可以在新浪微博上追踪她。
7月8日，《我的成功可以复制》一书的出版商──中信出版社和蓝狮子财经策划中心在声明中说此书的第二作者应为这一错误负责，并且唐骏曾亲自要求删除与这所学校相关的内容。但由于出版方编校过程中沟通出现滞后，错误还是出现在了2008年12月第一版中。未能找到该书的第二作者置评。 “来来往往”专栏尝试用西方人熟悉的语言与语境写中国商业文化。专栏每两周在《华尔街日报》报纸及网络版以中英文双语同步发表。专栏作者袁莉2004年在纽约加入《华尔街日报》，先后担任记者和专栏作者。她2008年回到北京担任《华尔街日报》中文网主编。袁莉毕业于哥伦比亚大学和乔治•华盛顿大学，并曾在新华社担任编辑以及驻泰国和阿富汗记者。欢迎读者发送邮件至li.yuan@wsj.com或在评论栏中发表评论和建议，也可以在新浪微博上追踪她。在接受中国媒体采访的同一天，唐骏对自己约70万新浪微博粉丝写道：“第一，今后我的名片上会加印一个博士在名字后。第二，法律会让现在和今后那些捏造事实污陷他人者付出代价。第三，我还是我，什么都没改变……”在那之后他没有再发过微博，给新华都要求置评的电子邮件和电话均无回复。
关于这件事的辩论在中国仍在继续，部分原因是美国国会调查机构──美国政府问责局(Government Accountability Office,简称GAO)在2004年的一份报告中说，西太平洋大学是一所“文凭作坊”。报告说，该校未被政府认可，学生交钱便可拿到学位，不需要上课。西太平洋大学后来改名为加州米拉马大学( California Miramar University)。加州米拉马大学学生事务办公室说，该校已经更换了管理层，是与西太平洋大学完全独立的学校。
Corbis
大学文凭，特别是知名高等学府的文凭，可能成为成功职业生涯的敲门砖。
直到15、20年前，大多数中国人的工作都是靠政府分配的，而且每份工作几乎都是铁饭碗，是要干一辈子的。文凭是政府在分配工作时可以依据的少数几个衡量标准之一。即便是现在，政府机构和国有企业给本科生和博士生的工资标准通常是不一样的，一些职位还只限高学历的人担任。
耶鲁大学管理学院金融学教授陈志武说，这是个供需问题，当社会将文凭看得极重时，就会有人不惜冒险去满足这样的要求，很遗憾，有人看到收益超过风险时会决定走捷径。
对于那些没有门路的人来说，从全国各地的黑市上获得假文凭也是轻而易举的事。知名大学的文凭只要几百元人民币（不那么知名的大学文凭价格反而要高一些，因为缺乏规模效应）。据新华社旗下一家报纸2004年的一篇报导，中央政府在清查全国67万名中层干部文凭的行动中发现，每40名干部就有一人的文凭有问题，从假文凭到虚报学历等等都有。
欧美高校的文凭受承认程度与中国国内的大学相近，甚至更高。十几二十年前，只有极少数中国人有机会出国留学，获得西方大学的学位则可以叩开许多机遇的大门。
当然，假文凭或虚报学历的情况并非中国独有。美国政府问责局2004年的报告发现，28名联邦政府高级官员的学历来自“文凭作坊”或者其他不具备资质的学校，并认为实际数字应该会更高。
全球知名学府的学位在很多国家都是好用的敲门砖也是不争的事实。美国迄今44任总统中有八位曾就读于哈佛大学(Harvard University)。高管猎头公司Spencer Stuart的一项调查显示，2004年以前，哈佛大学是标准普尔500(S&P 500)公司CEO就读最多的学校。2008年，哈佛大学与威斯康星大学(University of Wisconsin)大学打平。
Li Yuan
In many cultures, where people go to college and what degrees they hold is a serious matter affecting job prospects and social standing. But in China, academic credentials have long been one of the most important factors in determining the fate of many people.
For more than 1,000 years, the Chinese bureaucracy was mostly made up of people who succeeded in imperial examinations.
In recent times, colleges, especially the top ones, remain the breeding ground for the ruling class. Three of the nine-member Politburo of the Communist Party's Standing Committee, China's ruling body, graduated from Tsinghua University, and one from Peking University.
This is the context for recent public debate over unproven allegations a former president of Microsoft China and best-selling author distorted his academic credentials.
Since early July, Jun Tang has been mired in the so-called 'diploma gate' scandal after Fang Shimin, a science writer known for his criticism of academic fraud, accused Mr. Tang of having falsely claimed to have earned a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.
Mr. Fang said he had tried to check the claim, which, he said, was made in one edition of Mr. Tang's popular book 'My Success Can Be Copied,' by calling the university, but he couldn't find records of Mr. Tang having graduated.
Mr. Tang has denied making the claim about Caltech, telling Chinese media that he graduated from another university. 'I only said I had done some research [at Caltech,]' he told the state-run China Daily newspaper on July 6. 'Instead, I got my doctor's degree at the California-based Pacific Western University,' the paper quoted him as saying. A representative for Caltech told The Wall Street Journal last Thursday that Mr. Tang didn't graduate from the school.
A July 8 statement by the book's publishers, Citic Publishing House and Blue Lion Financial Planning Center, said Mr. Tang's co-author was responsible for the error and that Mr. Tang personally requested that the reference to the school be removed. The correction was made, but not until after the first edition was published in December 2008 because of 'a lag in communication during the proofreading process,' according to Mr. Tang's publishers. The co-author couldn't be reached for comment.
On July 6, Mr. Tang wrote to his roughly 700,000 followers on his sina.com microblog: 'First, from now on I'm going to add Ph.D. to my name on my business card; second, laws will make those who fabricate facts and make false charges against other people pay a price; third, I'm still me. Nothing has changed . . . .' He hasn't written anything since, and emails and calls to his company for comments went unanswered.
Meanwhile debate continued in China, in part because Pacific Western University was labeled a 'diploma mill' by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in a report published in 2004, which listed the school as an unaccredited institution that awarded degrees for a fee and required no classroom instruction. Pacific Western University later changed its name to California Miramar University. California Miramar's student services office says it is under new management and considers itself a separate entity from Pacific Western.
While the Chinese media seem to be perpetuating Mr. Fang's claim about Mr. Tang despite the fact that the publisher already has explained the error, the issue of fake qualifications clearly touches a nerve here.
Until 15 to 20 years ago most jobs in China were assigned by the state and lasted for life. A diploma was about the only criterion the state could use to decide what kind of job everybody should get. Even today, government agencies and state-owned enterprises still have different pay scales for people with bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, and some positions are reserved for those with advance degrees.
'It's a matter of supply and demand,' says Zhiwu Chen, professor of finance at Yale University's School of Management.
When a society values certain credentials so much, there will be people who will take risks to meet that demand, he says. 'It's unfortunate that some people choose to make the shortcut because the perceived benefits surpass the risks,' he says.
For those who aren't well connected, it's quite easy to get fake diplomas on the black market. In 2004, a central government investigation into 670,000 midlevel cadres around the country found problems with the educational qualifications of one in 40, from fake diplomas to falsified degree standing, according to a report by a newspaper owned by Xinhua news agency.
Diplomas from universities in the West have similar, if not higher, value. A decade or two ago, when very few Chinese had opportunities to study abroad, a degree from a Western university could open many doors.
To be sure, fake or unearned education credentials aren't unique to China. The 2004 Government Accountability Office report found that 28 senior-level U.S. federal employees have degrees from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools, and it said the actual number could be higher.
It's also true that degrees from world-renowned universities help open doors in many countries. Eight of 44 U.S. presidents studied at Harvard University. Prior to 2004, Harvard alone was the most common school attended by S&P 500 CEOs, according to a survey by executive recruiter Spencer Stuart. In 2008, there was a tie between Harvard and the University of Wisconsin, the survey says.
---
Li Yuan is managing editor of Chinese WSJ.com, the Chinese edition of The Wall Street Journal Online.
In many cultures, where people go to college and what degrees they hold is a serious matter affecting job prospects and social standing. But in China, academic credentials have long been one of the most important factors in determining the fate of many people.
For more than 1,000 years, the Chinese bureaucracy was mostly made up of people who succeeded in imperial examinations.
In recent times, colleges, especially the top ones, remain the breeding ground for the ruling class. Three of the nine-member Politburo of the Communist Party's Standing Committee, China's ruling body, graduated from Tsinghua University, and one from Peking University.
This is the context for recent public debate over unproven allegations a former president of Microsoft China and best-selling author distorted his academic credentials.
Since early July, Jun Tang has been mired in the so-called 'diploma gate' scandal after Fang Shimin, a science writer known for his criticism of academic fraud, accused Mr. Tang of having falsely claimed to have earned a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.
Mr. Fang said he had tried to check the claim, which, he said, was made in one edition of Mr. Tang's popular book 'My Success Can Be Copied,' by calling the university, but he couldn't find records of Mr. Tang having graduated.
Mr. Tang has denied making the claim about Caltech, telling Chinese media that he graduated from another university. 'I only said I had done some research [at Caltech,]' he told the state-run China Daily newspaper on July 6. 'Instead, I got my doctor's degree at the California-based Pacific Western University,' the paper quoted him as saying. A representative for Caltech told The Wall Street Journal last Thursday that Mr. Tang didn't graduate from the school.
A July 8 statement by the book's publishers, Citic Publishing House and Blue Lion Financial Planning Center, said Mr. Tang's co-author was responsible for the error and that Mr. Tang personally requested that the reference to the school be removed. The correction was made, but not until after the first edition was published in December 2008 because of 'a lag in communication during the proofreading process,' according to Mr. Tang's publishers. The co-author couldn't be reached for comment.
On July 6, Mr. Tang wrote to his roughly 700,000 followers on his sina.com microblog: 'First, from now on I'm going to add Ph.D. to my name on my business card; second, laws will make those who fabricate facts and make false charges against other people pay a price; third, I'm still me. Nothing has changed . . . .' He hasn't written anything since, and emails and calls to his company for comments went unanswered.
Meanwhile debate continued in China, in part because Pacific Western University was labeled a 'diploma mill' by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in a report published in 2004, which listed the school as an unaccredited institution that awarded degrees for a fee and required no classroom instruction. Pacific Western University later changed its name to California Miramar University. California Miramar's student services office says it is under new management and considers itself a separate entity from Pacific Western.
While the Chinese media seem to be perpetuating Mr. Fang's claim about Mr. Tang despite the fact that the publisher already has explained the error, the issue of fake qualifications clearly touches a nerve here.
Until 15 to 20 years ago most jobs in China were assigned by the state and lasted for life. A diploma was about the only criterion the state could use to decide what kind of job everybody should get. Even today, government agencies and state-owned enterprises still have different pay scales for people with bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, and some positions are reserved for those with advance degrees.
'It's a matter of supply and demand,' says Zhiwu Chen, professor of finance at Yale University's School of Management.
When a society values certain credentials so much, there will be people who will take risks to meet that demand, he says. 'It's unfortunate that some people choose to make the shortcut because the perceived benefits surpass the risks,' he says.
For those who aren't well connected, it's quite easy to get fake diplomas on the black market. In 2004, a central government investigation into 670,000 midlevel cadres around the country found problems with the educational qualifications of one in 40, from fake diplomas to falsified degree standing, according to a report by a newspaper owned by Xinhua news agency.
Diplomas from universities in the West have similar, if not higher, value. A decade or two ago, when very few Chinese had opportunities to study abroad, a degree from a Western university could open many doors.
To be sure, fake or unearned education credentials aren't unique to China. The 2004 Government Accountability Office report found that 28 senior-level U.S. federal employees have degrees from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools, and it said the actual number could be higher.
It's also true that degrees from world-renowned universities help open doors in many countries. Eight of 44 U.S. presidents studied at Harvard University. Prior to 2004, Harvard alone was the most common school attended by S&P 500 CEOs, according to a survey by executive recruiter Spencer Stuart. In 2008, there was a tie between Harvard and the University of Wisconsin, the survey says.
---
Li Yuan is managing editor of Chinese WSJ.com, the Chinese edition of The Wall Street Journal Online.
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