NUS removes profile of visiting professor in hot water over fake degree

An NUS Business School visiting professor made the news recently after fact-checking from the public revealed that her doctorate degree is from a fake university in Europe. 

The trouble started when Peking University professor Chen Chunhua claimed to be a “military adviser” for Huawei, but the company issued a public statement denying this.

Professor Chen, 58, is currently a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore Business School. However, her profile has been removed from the site.

She is the dean of Beijing International MBA (BiMBA) Business School at Peking University as well as a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Business Administration of the South China University of Technology.

Prof Chen has had a high-profile career in China, having been included in Fortune’s China’s 25 Most Influential Businesswomen Leaders list from 2015 to 2018, reported South China Morning Post on July 22.

The professional biography of the professor says that in 2001, she obtained her doctorate of business administration (DBA) from the European University of Ireland.

However, this university has no website and is not listed among the legitimate universities in Ireland acknowledged in China.

SCMP added that the European University of Ireland has no office and has been operating without approval, a report in The Irish Times said in 2011.

On July 6, Huawei issued a public statement that said it had seen more than ten thousand online articles, including Prof Chen’s comments on the tech giant.

Some of the pieces claimed that she is a “Huawei military adviser”.

It was also mentioned that she had met with Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, who had allegedly picked her up personally and drove for her himself.

“Huawei does not know her, and it is impossible for her to know Huawei,” the company’s statement said.

Moreover, Huawei called these articles “false information”.

SCMP reported that the professor responded to Huawei’s statement, saying that she did not write most of the articles referred to in the statement.

She added that she had made a case study of the tech giant for work. 

However, there has been a backlash in China over this latest case of academic dishonesty.

“Isn’t this academic fraud? How can someone who uses fake credentials be dedicated to real research and solve real problems?” SCMP quotes one Weibo user as saying.

/TISG

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