Midterm Time

A few weeks ago I had my midterm interviews with my students. Which are always interesting, some because they are so bizarre and some because they are actually interesting. Take for example two of my students who chose to speak with me about education.

The first student, who often comes to me to vent his displeasure with the Chinese education system, wanted to talk about the policy of Masters students having to publish 2 articles before they can receive their degree. The conversation went something like this:

Unnamed student: My professor says that 90% of these articles are trash. Is trash the right word here?
Me: Yeah, trash works there. So does anyone check the quality of these articles before they are published?
Unnamed student: No one checks the quality. There are so many journals in China and most of them are trash (at this point it's obvious that he really likes the word trash). Most journals take money to publish the articles.
Me: What do you mean by 'they take money to publish the articles'?
Unnamed student: The students give money to the journal to have the article in the journal. This school's journal it costs 800rmb, that's what my professor told me.
Me: Wow, this is a serious problem. Is it the same situation at all universities in China? Unnamed student: Yes, for 90 or 95% of universities and journals.

He continued to talk about the idea of who is cheating who here (the guy is really bright and always has stuff like this to say), and concluded with the idea that the students are cheating themselves, universities are cheating the students and China's future is being cheated. Pretty good summary, and all spoken in really good English. I've heard about lots of flaws in the education system and money passing hands, but this is the first time I heard of this situation and the first time someone has given me an exact number.

The second student who had studied in America for two years during her undergrad before returning to China to do her Masters. She wanted to discuss some of the differences between her study experiences in America and China. Halfway through the conversation she brought up cheating as an example of a huge difference between the two countries.

Unnamed student2: In America if a student is caught cheating the professor will be very strict and serious with punishment, but here in China there is really no punishment.
Me: (i know all this already, but want to continue the conversation). What do you mean no punishment? There must be some punishment.
Unnamed student2: No, there's no punishment. If you get caught, you can just give the teacher some money or find one of the leaders and they will help you out of trouble.
Me: (similar question as previous conversation) Is this situation the same all over China?
Unnamed student2: Yes, (joking) so if you need some extra money you should try.

Laughter follows, with cartoonish dollar signs flashing in my eyes.

So, an education system filled with cheating and corruption. Wow, I'm SOOOO glad that the world's economy is dependent on this nation. That's AWESOME with a capital AWESOME.

On a side note: I was wearing a yellow shirt on one of the days of the interviews and one of my students walked in and said "Peter, you are so high today!", quickly correcting himself and saying bright, but it was too late and the damage was done, I laughed my ass off for a good 20 seconds while he stood there utterly confused. If you don't know why I would think that is funny, you didn't know me in university.