Temporary accreditation of online diplomas to end in China

Starting now, China will no longer recognize university degrees earned only online. For now this mainly concerns Chinese students who are enrolled in foreign universities who will now need to return to them, but it will have a knock-on effect for ESL teachers in China looking to upgrade their credentials online.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202301/30/WS63d7a298a31057c47ebabe24.html

To give you an idea about how this works, to work in China, you need to get your degree authenticated. One way is to go via the Chinese embassy/consulate in your home country. You take the degree to a notary, take it somewhere else for national-level authentication, and then take it to the Chinese embassy/consulate. I guess this would still be do-able if the degree doesn't say "online" on it, but there's a catch: when you do it this way, it expires. The other way is via the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange. You give them your degree information, sign an affidavit, and they check to see if you actually graduated. This method is more expensive, but if you need degree authentication even twice in a lifetime it's the more economical way. It's mainly used by Chinese students who complete degrees abroad, but it can be used by foreigners to get visas also. Going forward they're not going to give this authentication to online degrees.

Damn! I was going to start an online Master's degree program tomorrow. Thankfully I've only sunk ¥3,200 into it so far. I might still do it. Maybe it will be fun to study if I don't really give a s*** about passing. I can re-direct my trolling energy into it.

I guess it depends on how many years you have left in you, how long you plan to stay in China, and if the on-line master's will be recognized elsewhere or back in Canada. If it's just China's problem, then it'll still be worth doing, if you are motivated to do it.

Thanks Rye. Anyway it might be a false alarm. It looks like the press release might only refer to degrees completed online that were originally supposed to be done in-person. They might continue to authenticate purely online degrees. It's also possible that schools would continue to respect them even if the government won't put their stamps on them. I guess only time will tell.

The thing is in China, national guidelines for things like this are stuck to in varying degrees from province to province. So, while some of the big areas like Beijing may apply it, other areas will tend to ignore it and rather meet their needs. Anyhoo, I wouldn't be too worried about it, it is not like you are going to stay in China till you die. Make your bucks and get out while you are ahead is probably the best strategy.

Saw a post on Reddit. It seems like China is the place to go for those teachers looking to make some money.

There are tons of jobs and recruiters for China and for other Asian countries. What are you looking for? Do you want low workload and free time with lower pay or do you want to work more with less vacations and make more pay? Beware of chains like EF. They pay significantly less than the Chinese market is willing to pay. IE 15000 rmb including housing allowance. In a Tier one CHinese city, you will need at least 25,000 rmb total pay minimum. Though some arguments could be made for 20 or 21. But if you want to work more, you can find 30,000 to 40,000 rmb. There are also cheaper tier two cities where your pay will go further too. Some universities in the lower tier places that give free housing and 15 to 18 thousand rmb can actually go quite far with lots of vacation time and free time too. Less pay, more laziness. More pay and more working. Chinese market it's all up to you. (Some other countries low pay, lots of work, and no other options. IE Korea and Japan though they are more modern.)

The thing is in China, national guidelines for things like this are stuck to in varying degrees from province to province. So, while some of the big areas like Beijing may apply it, other areas will tend to ignore it and rather meet their needs. Anyhoo, I wouldn't be too worried about it, it is not like you are going to stay in China till you die. Make your bucks and get out while you are ahead is probably the best strategy.

Degree authentication is done either by the China Center for Scholarly Exchange, or the Chinese diplomatic mission where you got the degree. These are both national-level authorities. The only way around it is for provinces to not require authentication at all. As far as I know, every province requires authentication either from the China Center for Scholarly Exchange or the embassy of the country where you got the degree if you want to submit it as part of your work permit application.

I started the degree program today. If nothing else it's a fun hobby.

Saw a post on Reddit. It seems like China is the place to go for those teachers looking to make some money.

It's good to see hangook77 is keeping himself busy. He's right about EF but it's kind of irrelevant. I don't know a single native-speaker of English with a college degree who works at EF. I had a phone interview with a recruiter in 2014 and as soon as she revealed she was working for EF, I just hung up the phone.

"Thank you Mr. Herrington. I would like to proceed with your application. I represent a company called English First Educat-"

*Click*

Thanks Rye. Anyway it might be a false alarm. It looks like the press release might only refer to degrees completed online that were originally supposed to be done in-person. They might continue to authenticate purely online degrees. It's also possible that schools would continue to respect them even if the government won't put their stamps on them. I guess only time will tell.

That is my understanding. A lot of students had to rush abroad to make sure it's completed in-person.

Get your Master's degree regardless. Other countries will accept it.

Yeah I've decided to continue with it. It's actually a lot of fun.

I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with my MA. Got a merit in the end, so can't complain too much but I found the CELTA far more useful "in the classroom". Without a doubt my MA is opening doors and getting me far better paying jobs though. 

May I ask who you did it with?