Paper No Longer Proof – By Spencer McCall

On July 11th of this year, a scandal erupted when it was reported Shin Jeong Ah, an art history professor at Dongguk University and a prominent member of the artistic community, had lied about her Ph.D. from Yale as well as degrees from the University of Kansas. It sparked a widespread investigation that has to date uncovered the lies and fake degrees of several of Korea’s leading artists, celebrities and academics. For more information on the individuals involved in the scandals and the continuing investigation, visit the International Herald Tribune at
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/28/asia/korea.php

What is gaining less press is the recent widening scope of the crackdown on fake degrees, which is not only effecting prominent Koreans, but foreign ESL teachers as well. Across the country, ESL teachers are facing intense pressure to produce further proof their degrees are genuine. At first, this verification process was relegated only to Public Schools and their foreign teachers in the area of the Seoul Board of Education. But as of October, Busan and Daegu were beginning this process.

The initiation of this verification process is understandable given that Korea has faced many problems with fake degrees in the past. And now, it seems the problem is spreading. In 2005, over a hundred foreign teachers were detained and deported after it was discovered they possessed fake degrees. That incident was later traced back to a Seoul recruiter who had for months been promising naïve and perhaps financially desperate teachers a way of skirting the system. After that incident, papers from immigration were sent to all Hagwons and Public Schools, asking for more transcripts and re-inspections of degrees.

However, the Public School teachers now face a tougher challenge because neither the government nor school boards have clearly stated what they will accept as proof of an authentic degree. Among the teachers I have talked with, stories vary as to what the authorities are willing to accept. A Canadian teacher in Seoul was told to get a list of alumni from her graduating class. Universities, of course, do not allow disclosure such lists without prior consent because of privacy laws. Another teacher, an American working at a Public School in Busan, obtained a personal letter from the Dean of her University stating she had indeed matriculated and graduated from the University. She was promptly informed the letter was not enough proof. Nor did she receive any further instruction in how to follow up the matter.