A Quick Study - Fake degrees in China | Hacker News Reader

A Quick Study - Fake degrees in China

economist.com

45 pointsCaptainZapp11 comments

While this is certainly a significant issue, I will say that experience has a significantly larger impact than a diploma in China. Specifically, when multinational companies hire in China, they value work experience much more than the diploma, as the diploma itself is not worth as much in China. For example, a 4 year US engineering degree is considered by our HR group to be equivalent to a 4 year Chinese degree + 3-4 years experience.

I'm guessing those companies have been burnt so much by fake qualifications that they simply choose to ignore them.

That is all pretty common in China. I know a number of people victims of various such scams. Building the economy on copying western and japanese stuff fires back when it creates a society where everything is acceptable as long as it makes money.

“A diploma is worth actual money, whereas an education is not.”

Don't developing countries grow up so fast these days. It's taken a century of cynicism for most American colleges to recognize this and the Chinese have reached the point in only a few years.

Cynicism is something the Chinese have in spades. The thing is that I know that Americans will eventually realize that education is what's important and not the diploma. But the Chinese, they will latch on to the concept of a "diploma" forever.

"But the Chinese, they will latch on to the concept of a 'diploma' forever."

Actually, the Chinese are the ones who invented 'meritocracy'.

You mean Confucious' notions of the bureaucratic class? Because you were still born into it. And then there's the whole business of imperial dynasties...

"Because you were still born into it."

That's no different than college today. That's why I put meritocracy in quotes: it's basically a scam that's designed to perpetuate the ruling class and keep down minorities while appearing fair on the superficial level.

To be fair, there were times duing the Sui, Tang, and even Ming dynasties where the imperial exam was taken seriously and quite an innovation against current practices, where at least you could move up the social rank if you could do well on the test.

I think what the grandparent was implying is that only landowner families would have had the means to take the exam and become a government official, so it wasn't a fully meritocratic society. Of course, these things are all relative and there was probably more social mobility in this system than other contemporary nations.

OK, I have to ask. Where are you getting your confidence from?

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