Red faces down at the diploma mill

Getting a diploma these days can be as easy as falling off a log, thanks to the internet. The temptation to become a doctor, or even a professor, with just a few clicks of the mouse is, for some, too hard to resist given the belief that no one will ever know. But the World Wide Web is a double-edged sword capable of delivering fatal wounds. It was the internet that led thousands of people, including some Hongkongers, to be named and shamed online for buying phoney paperwork from a US diploma mill. Two local college teachers and a company executive have admitted to the South China Morning Post that they acquired bogus certificates, while a self-proclaimed educator denied having a fake professorship despite records from his own website suggesting otherwise. It is becoming increasingly hard for fake diplomas to bypass checks at local universities, according to academics. And what people do in cyberspace leaves tracks, just like in the real world, and could come back to haunt them, an internet expert said. Andy Kwan Cheuk-chiu, an associate professor of economics at Chinese University, said Hong Kong universities rigorously checked the credentials of employees and job applicants. 'Those with degrees from unknown or unheard-of universities will be screened out in the very first round of interviews,' Professor Kwan said. He said it was easy to check on a university by consulting authoritative journals that rank such institutions throughout the world. Anthony Tsui Shu-chuen, a programme director at the University of Hong Kong School of Professional and Continuing Education (HKU Space), admitted paying for a doctorate of philosophy and a professorship from the bogus St Regis University three or four years ago. But Dr Tsui, who spent US$2,000 to US$3,000 on a St Regis doctorate, said he thought he was applying to a genuine institution when he sent research work and payments to St Regis University. Dr Tsui tried to update his resume with the St Regis doctorate degree but HKU Space would not accept it. In a statement, HKU Space said its human resources department received evidence of Dr Tsui's St Regis degree in 2004 but never recognised it. Dr Tsui said there was an acceptable and 'non-traditional' way of gaining an overseas doctorate - submitting one's resume and research work without taking courses. But Ma Ngok, a political scientist and associate professor at Chinese University, said gaining academic credentials in that way was impossible in Hong Kong. 'There might be some private institutions overseas that give out degrees as long as you pay,' Professor Ma said. Antonio Frederico do Rego, acting head of a business school at Chinese University - Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Community College (CUTW), admitted buying a professorship certificate from St Regis University in 2002. Mr do Rego made the purchase online out of curiosity and just 'for fun', he said. He was suspended by CUTW after the South China Morning Post reported the matter. Mr do Rego said he had never used the certificate to gain employment or a pay rise. About six years after the purchase, he was surprised to learn that his name had wound up on a purported US investigators' list on the internet. US federal investigators probed the Spokane, Washington-based diploma mill in 2005. Last month, the Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane published more than 9,000 names on its website after it said it had obtained the investigators' list of alleged buyers. Already eight people have pleaded guilty to various crimes for helping to run the diploma mill from August 1999 to August 2005, during which it sold nearly US$6.3 million in phoney degrees, transcripts and professorships to people across the world. At least 24 Hongkongers appeared on the published list, which prompted a Post investigation into possible buyers from Hong Kong. Jim Shek, a founding member of the Professional Information Security Association, said buying degrees on the internet was no safer than doing so in a traditional way. Records of online transactions could be traced through internet service providers, he said. 'What people do on the internet leaves marks and records just like in the real world.' Mr Shek said the internet has made it easy to check the authenticity of diplomas by allowing instant access to information about universities worldwide. Alfred Kwok Tai-wai, the chief executive of Jada Electronics, also admitted making 'a mistake' in dealing with the same diploma mill. Mr Kwok, a long-term business partner of former executive councillor Allen Lee Peng-fei, said he had been fooled into applying for a degree he thought was genuine. The Post also found that a self-claimed educator - once listed on his own website as a St Regis professor - was offering unregistered higher-degree courses in Hong Kong. The Kowloon-based Institute of Supply Chain Management (ISCM), chaired by Nagar Lai, runs overseas MBA (master of business administration), doctorate and other postgraduate courses. But ISCM is not registered to run degree programmes locally, the Education Bureau confirmed. Until August 12, the ISCM website had referred to Mr Lai as a visiting professor of St Regis University, which was deemed bogus by US federal investigators. But the St Regis reference had been removed from the ISCM website on August 13 - just a day after the Post reported that St Regis had sold fake documents to Hongkongers. Mr Lai is now listed as a visiting professor of the International American University on the website, but his St Regis reference can still be retrieved using Google's 'cache' function that gives access to earlier versions of websites. ISCM offers courses that could lead to postgraduate diplomas or degrees conferred by St Clements University, registered in the Turks and Caicos Islands, the International American University in Palmdale, California, and the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou. On the list published by the Spokesman-Review, there is a 'Philip Lai Man' who allegedly bought a certificate of associate professorship. Until August 13, St Clements University listed 'Dr Lai Man Philip (Nagar)' as a doctorate graduate on its website and said he headed the Hong Kong Institute of Supply Chain Management. Mr Lai on August 14 admitted he was a partner of St Clements University but said 'Dr Lai Man Philip (Nagar)' was not him. On August 15, that name had been replaced with 'Dr Nagar Lai' on the St Clements University website. The Education Bureau has looked into the cases of Mr do Rego and Dr Tsui and urged local institutions to step up their checks on employees' credentials. The bureau also launched an inquiry into the activities of ISCM and asked it not to conduct any courses in Hong Kong. Professor Kwan said he believed that buying diplomas was very rare among university teachers in Hong Kong. 'Degrees from unknown institutions arouse suspicion,' he said, adding that teachers buying degrees 'are likely to be isolated cases ... Such degrees might become a liability when they cause people to question them.'