Many universities say 'no impact' after being tricked by fake PhDs

A doctor using a fake degree used to teach and guide projects and theses, but Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Saigon University of Technology said it did not affect the quality of students' learning.

In October, the Vietnam College of Industry and Trade announced that it had discovered that Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai, Head of the Information Technology Department, had used fake doctoral and master's degrees. Later, many universities also discovered that Mr. Hai had applied and taught during the period 2016-2022. Ho Chi Minh City Police are working with the schools on this matter.

In particular, Mr. Hai guided theses and projects for a number of students from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Saigon University of Technology.

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Anh, Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, said that Mr. Hai was a guest lecturer, then an official lecturer at the Faculty of Information Technology, from 2016 to 2022. Mr. Hai taught Software Development Tools and Environment, Information Technology Project Management, Software Management, but "with a small volume". He also guided some students in doing course projects.

"Mr. Hai's teaching quality is rated as average by students," said Mr. Quoc Anh.

At Saigon Technology University (STU), Associate Professor Cao Hao Thi, Vice Principal, said he signed a working contract with Mr. Hai from April 2021 until the end of last year. In addition to teaching a number of subjects, Mr. Hai guided the graduation thesis of 9 students.

Responding to the question of how the school will handle the courses taught by Mr. Hai, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Anh said that in a university environment, lecturers mainly play the role of guides, not deciding, and have too much influence on the quality of students' learning. The content of the knowledge taught is already available according to the curriculum compiled by the school.

"When taking exams, the school has its own bank and exam questions, not just any teacher who grades or sets the questions. If students have passed the exams, they certainly have certain abilities and knowledge standards," he said.

Similarly, Associate Professor Cao Hao Thi said that the graduation thesis is evaluated by a council, including many teachers, so the students' results are guaranteed to meet the requirements.

"The school has no intention of canceling the results or requiring students taught by Mr. Hai to retake the course," Mr. Quoc Anh added.

The fake doctorate degrees that Mr. Hai provided to schools. Photo: Provided by the school

Other schools such as Van Hien University, University of Transport, and Nha Trang University also said that they had accepted Mr. Hai as a guest lecturer and on probation, but the time was not significant so they were not affected.

According to the schools, when applying, Mr. Hai submitted notarized copies of his master's and doctoral degrees in Computer Science from the University of Natural Sciences in Ho Chi Minh City. Some schools said that due to the tense Covid-19 epidemic situation, there was no software to look up degrees, so they did not detect that Mr. Hai's degrees were fake.

The incident was discovered when the Vietnam College of Industry and Commerce recruited and appointed Mr. Hai as head of the department in September. After some doubts were raised about his qualifications, the school sent Mr. Hai’s information and diploma to the University of Natural Sciences for verification. In a written response, the school said that the information on the diploma did not match the school’s data.

According to regulations, schools must publicize all issued diplomas and certificates for the convenience of relevant parties and for social supervision, but many schools have not done this. The Ministry of Education and Training has built a software to look up national diplomas and certificates since 2021, and is currently running a trial run.

In 2017, a lecturer at Dong A University (Hanoi) was found to have used fake degrees in Information Technology, Master of Engineering, and a certificate of successful defense of his doctoral thesis at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. He was later sentenced to 24 months in prison, suspended.

Le Nguyen

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