The Times: Cheated in class? No mortgage for you, Chinese government warns

The Chinese government is threatening to withdraw a postgraduate’s ability to secure a mortgage if they are found to have plagiarised someone else’s work.

Academic dishonesty has been included as part of China’s social credit scheme

In a joint statement, the ministries of education and finance and the National Development and Reform Commission announced they would include academic dishonesty as part of the country’s social credit scheme.

The programme, which the government began to develop in 2007, tries to link a Chinese citizen’s antisocial behaviour with their life chances. Citizens are scored on whether they fail to settle bad debts or play music too loudly on public transport. That score determines their ability to get a mortgage, secure a place for a child in a good school or book a flight.

“We must strictly regulate dossier management and explore a sharing mechanism among universities and institutes on academic papers and degree dissertations,” the latest document on the reform and development of the country’s graduate studies said. “We will make any fraudulent acts involving degree papers part of one’s credit to be included in the national information-sharing platform.”

The announcement represents the government’s latest effort to build a “credit” society, in which it hopes to discourage bad behaviour through so-called joint punishment.

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