On Fabricating Academic Credentials
Etymologically, the word "credential" derives from "credit" and is related to the moral attribute of credibility. An academic credential reflects a student’s academic knowledge and expertise, with which he becomes qualified for performing certain professional responsibilities at certain professional positions. Academic credentials shouldn’t be falsified because false credentials are dangerous. For example, a medical graduate with false credentials can kill his patients rather than rescuing them.
Currently, fabricating academic credentials is particularly rampant in China, where all recruitments seem to involve credentials. In order to secure the job they want, some job seekers without the required credentials have no alternative but to have them fabricated by professional forgers. While condemning users of fake credentials on both legal and moral grounds, we somehow tend to sympathize with them as they are victimized by a society addicted to the credential mania.
A more despicable form of credential fabrication is perpetrated by those already highly successful people—businessmen, entrepreneurs, government officials, celebrities in the entertainment industry, etc. They use false credentials not so much to advance their careers as to project their personal image as an icon. This is a greater evil because those fabricators contrive, through fraudulence, to secure our admiration and respect on the spiritual level. A most notorious case is the scandal of TxxJxx, who pretends to be a role model for innocent Chinese youth, with false Ph.D. credential from a non-existent American university.
To solve this problem, a combination of measures is necessary. We should evaluate a person by his true caliber, not solely by his credentials. Legally, we should crack down on both the seller and the buyer of false credentials. Finally, we should keep exposing and denouncing fabricators so they can no longer fool us. In this way, our society will become purified and credibility will ultimately prevail.
