Dong Zong Chairman accused of having fake Doctorates

(Malaysian Digest) - Chairman of non-governmental organization Dong Zong, the organizer of the 325 rally for Chinese education has been alleged to have bought his doctorates from the internet.

Portal www.nomorelies.my yesterday claims to have enough evidence to prove that Dr Yap Sin Tian is being accused by a yesterday of having fake credentials.

“He portrays himself as if he is a man of high integrity, high accountability and principles. In short, a man in defence of Chinese education. But we have enough evidence to prove that behind his beefed up image, is man who is dishonorable and deceitful. He has no qualms of buying his doctorates from the internet,” the portal said of Dr Yap.

“What you see of him is not what he is and he has over the years deceived the people and even his Chinese educationist group with regards to his fake credentials,” it added.

The portal said in the resume he “proudly displayed” on the website of the Oriental Strategy Research Centre of which he is a director Dr Yap claims to have a PhD in Business Administration from the Southern Cross University in Australia in 1999.

His purported strings of other qualifications include a PhD from the Kensington University in USA in 1993 and another doctorate in Business Administration from Kensington University in 1991.

“Strangely enough Dr Yap who professes to champion for Chinese education prefers US degrees,” jeered the portal.

The portal also highlighted that former DAP MP and Chinese educationist Dr Kua Kia Soong was the first person to raise Dr Yap’s three dubious doctorates.

Dr Kua had asked “how someone like Dr Yap could become the chairman of the board of the New Era College.”

The portal also claimed that, after checking, it found out that “Kensington University has no classrooms, no laboratories or dorms.”

“The so-called campus was housed in a small Glendale office building in California.

“It ran a program where students could earn anything from a bachelor’s degree to a doctorate – all without ever attending a single class or ever meeting their instructors face to face,” the portal said.

It also claimed that the “unscrupulous school” had been found to have routine acceptance of below-par student work, awarding inflated credit for so-called “life experience” and not having enough faculty.

“In one case, reviewers were shocked to discover that a student was awarded a doctorate merely by reading magazines and doing about a dozen short reaction papers.

“It seems that the school had also awarded doctoral degrees for as short as a four-month work, according to a report on the closure of this diploma mill school,” it added.

It also claimed that the ‘university’ “was finally shut down by a court order “following public complaints on this dubious college”.

“The university was shut down by Californian authorities in 1996. It shifted its operations to Hawaii but eventually was shut down by the authorities there in 2003,” said the portal.

According to the portal, the background of this expose comes from the Los Angeles Times.

“Florida State Representative Jeniffer Caroll had to quit from the National Commission on Presidential Scholars after the press exposed her for having a degree from the Kensington University.

“In this case, Dr Yap has not one but TWO faked Ph.ds from this same crappy unaccredited university which has been shut down by the authorities,” said the portal.