Educational authorities in East China's Jiangsu Province are reportedly ready to tighten the supervision of on-the-job master's and doctorate degrees.

They aim to track the overall process of graduate and postgraduate studies and degree conferring. Inspections of the process will be more frequent.

Government officials who pursue in-service degrees will be given special attention.

The move is a declaration of war against the increasingly serious problem of loose degree awarding.

It is widely known, but seldom said, that money and power can buy degrees in some places. Lured by economic benefits, some colleges launch on-the-job degree programs on the condition that the applicants pay high tuition fees.

In many cases, teachers of these programs just go through the motions, and so do some students.

Many of the students are government officials, who are said to be able to benefit the colleges in one way or another.

Such degree awarding has tainted the reputation of the educational profession. Many hold a master's degree but fail to display the due academic capacity a master's degree holder should possess.

It erodes people's confidence in the caliber of those who have worked hard to achieve a real degree.

More seriously, it goes against the principle of equality, the bottom-line principle of society. Students undergoing three years of rigorous academic training end up with the same degree as those who have bought one.

Colleges that give in and award degrees and diplomas to such people should be criticized and punished. But the issue is not so simple as it looks. To solve the problem, much more should be done and the process may be very slow.

For a long time, people have cultivated a mentality that college degrees and diplomas are of great value and those that pay to receive such an award are threatening other students' success.

(China Daily April 23, 2002)