By KHT Staff. AI illustration image.
KAOHSIUNG — Two National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (國立高雄科技大學, NKUST) professors were sentenced on June 15 after being found guilty of selling graduate degrees and arranging ghostwriters for theses, TVBS reported.
The Ciaotou District Court (橋頭地方法院) sentenced two full-time professors surnamed Wang (王) and Tang (唐), both from the university’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management (工業工程與管理學系), to seven years and five years and two months in prison, respectively, under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The case is Taiwan’s first known corruption conviction involving professors accused of selling academic degrees, reports said.
Prosecutors said the two professors charged less than NT$100,000 for master’s degrees and NT$320,000 for doctoral degrees. They were also accused of arranging for ghostwriters, including a Vietnamese student, to write theses for graduate students.
Investigators discovered evidence of the alleged scheme while looking into a separate Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) case involving Sanlian Group (三聯集團) Chairman Hsu Shao-tung (徐少東), TVBS reported. Messages found on a seized mobile phone led prosecutors to direct the Kaohsiung City Field Office (高雄市調查處) to search the professors’ offices and homes in July 2024.
The court said the professors abused their positions at a national university and seriously damaged academic integrity. Prosecutors said they also arranged for familiar professors to serve on oral examination committees to help students pass thesis reviews.
Students who paid bribes were sentenced to six to seven months in prison, with suspended sentences. The case can still be appealed.
