China Uses Social Credit System to Punish Academic Misconduct

Authorities say the strict measures will help curb the rampant plagiarism plaguing domestic academia

Plagiarizing academic papers can now negatively affect an individual’s social credit score in China.

A new guideline on postgraduate education published Tuesday stipulates that academic fraud will be recorded in China’s social credit system. The so-called social credit system was announced in 2014 to track citizens’ behaviors, with poor scores resulting in bans on taking air and rail transportation, buying property, or even enrolling children at private schools.

The guideline was jointly published by the Ministry of Education, National Development and Reform Commission, and Ministry of Finance. However, it is unclear whether the rule will apply only to master’s degree candidates or to other postgraduate students as well.

In recent years, several cases of academic plagiarism involving students, party officials, academics, and even celebrities have made headlines in China. Last week, the Ministry of Science and Technology found that five doctors working at university-affiliated hospitals in four cities had bought their joint medical thesis — linked to job promotions and research funds — from third-party agencies, though they only received lenient punishments.

According to a 2018 study on academic misconduct published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, just over two-thirds of 64 high-profile academic misconduct cases reported by domestic media had received some sort of punishment. The study suggested the lack of punishment mechanisms has resulted in an increase in academic misconduct.

“If a master’s degree candidate is found to be involved in academic misconduct, their supervisors should also be responsible,” wrote Liu Pu, the author of the study. “If any funded research was found to have academic misconduct, the peer-review team should also be responsible.”

According to Tuesday’s guideline, a mandatory essay-writing class has been added to the thesis-track curriculum for students so that they might learn about academic ethics. And authorities have vowed to “increase the investigation and punishment of academic misconduct” to restore some of the damage to the reputation of Chinese academia.

Editor: Bibek Bhandari.

(Header image: People Visual)