FRANCE: Claims that Chinese given false degrees

The University du Sud Toulon-Var has defended its integrity following allegations of trafficking of false degrees supposedly awarded to hundreds of Chinese students at its Institut d'administration des enterprises, or IAE.

The newspaper Le Monde, which first reported the allegations, said a complaint was lodged by a professor at the institute, leading to a preliminary investigation by the Marseille prosecutor for "passive and active corruption and fraud" and a search of the IAE's premises.

Le Monde said the prosecutor's office had "little by little reconstructed a large-scale trafficking in diplomas which, for four years, allowed several hundred Chinese students to obtain a diploma from the IAE". Pierre Sanz de Alba, Vice President of the University of Toulon, told the paper "nearly 100% of Chinese students" were awarded masters degrees in entrepreneurship, "while for other nationalities, including the French, the rate varied between 60% and 70%".

A "disturbing detail", reported Le Monde, was that most of the students from China for the current academic year did not speak French, which "makes the investigators think that some Chinese students come specially to buy a French diploma which is well regarded in a CV when they return to their country".

The French Ministry of Higher Education has ordered an administrative inquiry, reported Le Monde.

In a statement from the President's office on Friday Toulon University defended itself against claims that "call into question the integrity of a public institution and throw discredit on a whole profession".

After the charges came to light the President had set up an urgent internal inquiry and informed all relevant authorities, it said. To its knowledge, all student enrolments had been made strictly according to procedures and no examining boards or directors of diplomas had drawn attention to any anomaly. It commented on four claims in the press it said had led to "confusion".

On the "100% success rate" of Chinese students, where this was the case it concerned very low numbers attending specific courses, and their pass rates overall varied between 50% and 60% depending on the year. "Over three years 236 Chinese students have attended the IAE ... [of whom] 97 failed their exams, and 139 obtained a diploma after several years of study including repeats," said the statement.

The course that was the object of the complaint did not register a 100% pass rate among the Chinese: in 2006-07, 11 Chinese students out of 15 achieved their degree; in 2007-08, 20 out of 23 passed; and in 2005-06 the course did not exist, said the statement. It concluded the results of its inquiry "demonstrate the impossibility of selling hundreds of diplomas".

The second area of 'confusion' concerned charges of corruption. The statement said the IAE's director and a teacher confirmed that two Chinese students had tried to bribe them, one by telephone and the other by email. The telephone caller had offered EUR100,000 to the director to change the results of 60 students; no specific sum was mentioned in the email.

Third, on students' French language proficiency, the university said a call for vigilance from the Ministries of Education and of Higher Education had gone out after differences, possibly due to fraud, were noticed at several French exam centres in China between candidates' results in tests and their true competence. Toulon had noticed such discrepancies in the current intake and was introducing further tests for future students.

Fourth, the University said the sum of EUR2,700 was "not the price of purchasing a diploma", but the fee for a continuing training French language course, attended by 135 Chinese students in the 2008-09 academic year. "This course is organised in complete legality and allows international students to improve their level of competence in French," it stated.

Full report on the Le Monde site
Toulon University statement