It's only fair that all medical grads take the same tests

For quite a number of years, local authorities accepted virtually every diploma presented by a foreigner as genuine. Some of the certificates were only photocopies while others were blatant forgeries that a closer inspection would have exposed as such. In the 1970s and 1980s, the resident foreign community in Taiwan was relatively small and was comprised mainly of professionals. English teachers back then were much less common than today. In around 1990, things began to drastically change as word spread of easy, high-paying English teaching jobs available in Taiwan. Foreigners began flocking to the island and some of them took advantage of the lax visa policies. As the authorities slowly became aware of the issue of fraud, they began inspecting the diplomas more closely. Soon the blatant forgeries were a thing of the past and would-be applicants stopped submitting grainy photocopies of diplomas.

But, as the Internet gained in dominance, new ways to cheat became available. The most common of these was the purchase of diplomas from 'diploma mills.' These 'universities' sometimes consisted of just an office in some U.S. state or some small island nation. These schools exist mainly in name. Some offer a master's degree for the extremely ill defined major of “life experience” while others simply confer degrees upon payment. Fake transcripts of bogus study courses are also available to help convince prospective employers of the degree's authenticity. It's not just unscrupulous foreigners in Taiwan who have used such degrees. All across the world — in all sectors — people have been caught for doing so.

As the years wore on, Taiwan's immigration authorities learned to apply the wise adage “trust, but verify” to overseas diplomas. Today, an authenticated copy of a university degree as well as authenticated transcripts are generally required when a foreigner applies for a work visa or Alien Resident Certificate (ARC). All across the world, the awareness of fake degrees has risen and the rate of fraud has dropped considerably. These days if one tries to proffer such a diploma, their chances of being detected are high.

The scale of potential harm that a fake diploma could cause rises expeditiously with the level of technical skill required for a position. A 'fake' English teacher might deprive several dozen or even a hundred people of proper language instruction and while that would be unfortunate, it's hardly fatal. A 'fake' IT professional might cause the 'death' of numerous computer systems but again, real humans are not being physically harmed. A fake medical doctor, however, could cause the real deaths of real people and this is something society cannot tolerate.

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