denied again

Back on November 2 I translated a piece in 新京报/The Beijing News about a lawyer who sued the Ministry of Education’s China Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange because the Centre refused to authenticate his masters degree from Germany’s University of Hamburg. Mr Jiang’s argument was that the Centre had failed to carry out it’s administrative duties, while the centre argued that too much of Mr Jiang’s degree had been studied at Fudan University and was not approved, and that it’s not an administrative organ, but a public institution.

It seems that the court has ruled, and that Mr Jiang has had authentication of his degree denied again. A lot of 新京报/The Beijing News’s article is a recap of the case so, I’ll just cut and paste the tasty excerpts:

海淀法院认为，教育部留学服务中心是教育部下属的事业单位，其认证国外学历，只是得到了国务院学位委员会、教育部的同意，并没有得到行政委托。而且其认证只是增加学历的可信度，并不影响江先生使用其学位证书。

The Haidian Court considers that the Ministry of Education’s China Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange is a public institution under the Ministry of Education authenticating foreign degrees, and has only won the agreement of the State Council’s degree committee and the Ministry of Education, and has not been entrusted with administration. And authentication only increases the credibility of the degree, but does not inluence Mr Jiang’s use of his degree.

据此，海淀法院裁定教育部留学服务中心不认证不是行政行为，不属于行政诉讼的范围，驳回了江先生的起诉。

On these grounds, Haidian Court ruled that the Ministry of Education’s China Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange’s refusal to authenticate is not an administrative action and does not fall within the scope of an administrative suit, and dismissed Mr Jiang’s suit.

宣判后，江先生已提起上诉。

Since the judgement, Mr Jiang has already appealed.

To be honest, I find the whole thing utterly bizarre.