China's Ministry of Education (MOE) now offers authentication services for all foreign degrees and diplomas so that Chinese employers can verify the academic credentials of job applicants. The service was started on August 11.

According to MOE, the service is to satisfy the demands of students who have obtained foreign degrees.

The MOE can now authenticate degrees and diplomas received from overseas higher educational institutions and diplomas received from overseas joint venture schools approved by China's State Council, an MOE official told Xinhua on Monday.

The official said that before the new service was started, it could only offer notary services for university degrees from some 30 countries and regions. The new service, however, can authenticate degrees and diplomas from any country as long as the institutions of higher learning are included in the MOE list of acknowledged overseas schools.

The official says students can log onto the MOE's website to complete the authenticating process, which is more efficient. Under the previous mechanism, students had to submit their applications to the MOE by post or by hand.

According to the MOE, before the end of 2004, 6,000 students had their degrees notarized.

Authentication is required by most employers.

Since 1978, more than 400,000 Chinese students have studied abroad, and more than 100,000 have returned.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2005)