Macao University of Tourism (UTM) Rector Fanny Vong Chuk Kwan said on Friday that once the academic qualification of a student has been verified as fraudulent, his or her degree will be revoked even after graduation and the culprit will even be held criminally liable.
Vong made the remarks when addressing a current affairs phone-in programme, Ou Mun Gwong Cheung, hosted by Ou Mun Tin Toi – the Chinese-language radio channel of public broadcaster TDM, which discussed the recent fake certs cases.
Four mainland students were arrested earlier this month for allegedly using fake Hong Kong academic qualifications to enrol in the private Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), while another 20 students allegedly involved in the suspected fraud have reportedly returned to the mainland.
Vong said that the UTM has a strict admissions procedure and has no tolerance for deception and fake academic qualifications. She said that there are many official channels to verify the academic qualifications of students, whether the students studied in the mainland or abroad.
Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Director Kong Chi Meng said during Friday’s programme that academic certificates and transcripts with a higher degree of forgery have recently appeared, and there are also new guidelines that make use of new tactics to prevent them, adding that the bureau will strengthen its cooperation with international examination bodies in the hope that they will provide official verification channels, or that the bodies will send student results directly to local universities to further intercept the falsification of academic qualifications.
Acting President of the University of Macau (UM) Xu Jingwen said on Friday that in some cases, the biggest problem are the intermediaries, and the students are victims to a certain extent, and he called on parents of students applying for admission to local universities not to believe in the intermediaries’ claims of “guaranteed admission”, and emphasised the fairness and impartiality of the UM’s admission procedures.
Macao Polytechnic University (MPU) Acting President Lei Ngan Lin said that MPU attaches importance to the quality and gate-keeping of enrolment, stressing that the university has not commissioned any organisation or individual to act as enrolment agents.
Kong added that the bureau has always disallowed students and universities to enrol and recruit students through intermediaries, and that a number of local universities have already confirmed fake cert incidents, and that they do not rule out the possibility of discovering more false academic qualifications.
Kong said that once a fake academic qualification is discovered, the bureau will “certainly” cancel the students’ registration, degree and hold them legally responsible, and will also notify each culprit’s place of origin, which he described as “a heavy price to pay”, adding that students and parents should not believe that intermediaries provide one-stop services for admission.
Macao University of Tourism (UTM) Rector Fanny Vong Chuk Kwan (left), University of Macau (UM) Acting President Xu Jingwen (second from left), Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Director Kong Chi Meng (second from right), and Macao Polytechnic University (MPU) Acting President Lei Ngan Lin pose on Friday during the current affairs phone-in programme, Ou Mun Gwong Cheung, hosted by Ou Mun Tin Toi – the Chinese-language radio channel of public broadcaster TDM. – Photo courtesy of TDM
