South Korea Rocked by Revelations of Phony Degrees
Aug 27th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsSEOUL
South Korea is in the midst of an ethics scandal after it was revealed that many of its most distinguished citizens have claimed college degrees that they do not, in fact, possess.
CNN reports that the nation is now on a collective hunt for bogus credentials following the disclosure that a major figure in the art world faked her degrees from Yale and the University of Kansas.
Since then, reports the Associated Press, similar revelations have buffeted the careers of South Koreans in all walks of life, including professors, actresses, a cartoonist, and even a Buddhist priest.
Observers tell the AP that South Korea places so much emphasis on education that the pressure to pad a résumé is probably greater and the consequences of falsification more shameful.
An editorial in the Seoul-based daily Chosun Ilbo found some positive aspects to the hunt for bogus degrees, saying that the very fact the nation finds time to worry about bogus credentials shows how much progress has been made in overcoming poverty and pernicious corruption.
“[N]ow we find ourselves in a mist of confusion,” the editorial reads. “Who is genuine and who is fake? There’s an enormous sense of mistrust pervading the atmosphere. But South Korea once repelled a huge force of violence through heroic resistance and then managed to overcome festering poverty for the first time in 50 years. Considering our potential, we believe that this crisis of fraud by figures of culture and artists will eventually contribute to enhancing the ethical standards of our society.”
In related news, South Korea’s Supreme Court recently nullified the genuine graduate degrees of several South Koreans who faked undergraduate degrees in order to be accepted to graduate schools, reports the Korea Times.
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