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[Shan-Shan]

I went by the FAO yesterday to chat about next semester's classes, and possible scheduling conflicts. In the course of the conversation, I glanced over some resumes from foreigners looking for employment at the university.

I was initially taken aback by the sheer number of degrees three of these applicants possessed. All were over fifty years of age, and had taken an academic hiatus of around twenty to thirty years. Yet somewhere around the turn of the century, these three people's minds became very active, securing Masters degrees in Education, TESL and Communications. A couple of these people even found the time in three years to persue two Masters degrees!

However, after looking at the institutions which had issued these degrees, I became a little suspicious. While first asking for permission, I then used the office's computer to search the web for information on the schools these "teachers" had attended.

Well, it turned out that none of their schools existed in real space. One of the "institutes of higher learning" had a web page in eight languages, and no offices anywhere. The other "university" only had one Masters program: "International Global Communication". I believe the requirement for graduating was money and submission of a diary.

Now, I do not have my Masters degree, though I do have a bachelors and a TESL certificate from a university that exists on the ground, in Canada, with classrooms and professors.

However, I am a little fearful. As schools here are unlikely to know the difference between a degree awarded by s non-fictional university and one granted by a pseudo-school, will my chances of employment be hampered? My degree took four years to complete, with one year for the TESL certificate through the Lingustics department. Will I now have to be competing with people who spent half a year on a bogus Masters degree that perfects people's diary writing skills?

We are all aware of the "degree craze" infecting this country. Will us foreigners have to take our turn on the starting blocks, and race for a PhD in anything for the opportunity to teach the brilliant young minds of totalitarian moulding?