Scandal erupts at French university over alleged Chinese bribes
By Edward Cody
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
PARIS -- The president of the University of Toulon and two top aides were suspended Monday over charges of irregularities in the admission and graduation of Chinese students allegedly ready to pay bribes for the prestige of a French diploma.
The suspension, decided by Higher Education Minister Valerie Pecresse, was an unusual public stain on France's cherished tradition of opening its largely free education system to students from around the world. It underlined some of the pressures created by a skyrocketing number of Chinese students who go abroad, sometimes unprepared, to win the honor of a foreign diploma in China's increasingly competitive job market.
Pecresse said university president Laroussi Oueslati and vice presidents Pierre Sanz de Alba and Yves Lucas were ordered to step down because they were trying to prevent a ministry investigation by intimidating professors, threatening retaliation against witnesses and hiding documents that described admissions procedures. At the same time as the ministry investigation, the local prosecutor has opened a criminal inquiry to see whether any laws were broken.
Ministry inspectors in September had uncovered what Pecressse said in a communiqué were "serious irregularities in the application of rules governing the admission of foreign students and the validation of their studies." A further report, handed to the ministry Monday, alleged Oueslati and his aides tried to block the inquiry from finding out more about what happened, leading to the suspension.
France's open-armed attitude toward foreign students evolved from what the country used to call its "civilizing mission," a duty to bring learning and European culture to less advanced parts of the world. In that context, more than 260,000 foreign students are enrolled this year in French universities and other institutions of higher learning, the Foreign Ministry estimated, making up 12 percent of the student population.
As usual, more than half the foreign students came from Africa, particularly West African countries that were former French colonies and where French is widely spoken. But Asian students made up 16 percent of the total, up 8 percent from last year and part of a steady climb. A large part of that increase was due to a surge in Chinese students, some after having been refused visas in the United States, others because they are interested in French culture.
According to an Education Ministry investigation, several University of Toulon officials were approached by Chinese middlemen who proposed paying bribes for a number of admissions and guaranteed graduations for Chinese students. Those approached told investigators they turned down the offers.
The Sunday Newspaper, which obtained a copy of the ministry report, quoted it as saying one professor in charge of a master's degree program reported being contacted in the summer of 2008 by a Chinese alumnus who proposed almost $3,000 for each Chinese student admitted and another $7,500 for each one who obtained a diploma. The professor, identified as Nathalie Hector, said she turned him down but kept receiving e-mails from him suggesting Oueslati agreed with the arrangement.
She said she went to Oueslati and was told to break off contact. But Oueslati never reported the bribery attempt, she complained, and his aides pushed her to accept students who could not speak enough French to follow courses and whose admissions were handled through administrative offices rather than the normal admissions committee.
Neither Oueslati nor his aides commented on their suspensions, citing ministry disciplinary procedures that are underway. Previously, they have denied wrongdoing. The ministry report did not allege that Oueslati and his aides took bribes but that the undefined irregularities were committed under their administration.
Some professors suggested to local reporters that Oueslati might have cut corners because he was particularly eager to get foreign students into the university, a young institution that is, with 10,500 students, small by French standards. But they said the bribery, if any occurred, probably took place in China during language examinations qualifying Chinese students for study in France.
- posted on 10/20/2009
看来中国人身上有腐化基因,就象当年罗马帝国内的希腊人,老卡图
一骂再骂也不管用,后来全罗马都希腊化了。不过老马在《法兰西内
战》中引英法媒体篇章中谈到法京巴黎好象自古糜烂:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/ch05.htm
看了这一切惨象之后,现在再来看一看这个资产阶级文明由它自己的报刊所描写的另一面、更加丑恶的一面吧。
一家伦敦托利党报纸驻巴黎记者写道:
“远处还响着零星的枪声;受伤的人躺在拉雪兹神甫墓地的墓石间听天由命地死去;临死前绝望挣扎的6000个暴乱者,在迷宫似的地道中徘徊踯躅;街上到处追逐着不幸的人群,用多管炮击毙他们。在这个时候令人看了气愤的是,咖啡馆里挤满了爱好喝酒、打弹子、玩骨牌的人,荡妇们在林荫道上无耻地逛来逛去,纵酒狂欢的喧嚷声从大饭店的特别间中传出来,打破深夜的寂静!”
爱德华·爱尔威先生在曾被公社查封的一家凡尔赛报纸《巴黎报》上写道:
“巴黎居民昨天表现他们的欢乐的方式,实在是太轻佻了,恐怕还要每下愈况。巴黎笼罩着节日的气氛,而这是完全不合适的;要是我们不愿得到堕落时代的巴黎人的称号,就必须制止这种情形。”
接着,他引用了塔西佗的一段话:
“于是在这场可怕的斗争的第二天早晨,甚至在斗争还没有完全结束以前,下贱和放荡的罗马又滚到毁坏过它的身体和玷污过它的心灵的那种淫乱泥坑里去了。——alibi proelia et vulnera,alibi balneae popinaeque(这里是战斗和创伤,那里是澡堂和筵席)。”
不过爱尔威先生忘记了一点:他所说的“巴黎居民”只是梯也尔的巴黎的居民,是从凡尔赛、圣丹尼、吕埃伊和圣热尔门大批跑回的那些francs-fileurs的巴黎的居民;这真是“堕落时代”的巴黎。
Please paste HTML code and press Enter.
(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation