|
Some 60-70 percent of advanced degree holders in Korea are unqualified, and professors are to blame for approving substandard work, Sungkyunkwan University art professor Jung Jin-soo said Monday. In a phone interview with the Chosun Ilbo on Monday, Jung said, "I have approved many poorly written dissertations.¡± He said a scandal surrounding fake degrees from the U.S. was only the tip of the iceberg. ¡°Master's and doctoral theses passed through the legitimate process are also substandard,¡± he said. ¡°Graduate schools are bent on recruiting students, so they are lenient in approving theses."
"If I were to take issue with the matter by myself, I would have had to quit my chair long ago,¡± Jung said. ¡°Most college professors are accomplices in this lenient screening. Seventy percent of papers written by professors themselves only to add to their resume are rubbish. They are assessed by colleagues who don't examine one another¡¯s work thoroughly."
Jung teaches at Sungkyunkwan, where Kim Ock-rang, the head of the Dongsoong Art Center and Dankook University professor at the center of the latest fake degree scandal, received her master's and doctorate. Jung graduated from Sogang University in British and American Language and Literature and got his doctorate at the University of Illinois.
Jung¡¯s remarks are likely to put the cat among the pigeons. Already one professor of drama called them ¡°outrageous¡±, saying many professors examine theses with scholarly integrity.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
