On Academic Degree Revocation And Its Judicial Review

The degree system is an important part of higher education.The award of a degree is an official recognition of the academic standards of the degree.The relevant decisions must be made to meet strict academic standards.Accordingly,the revocation of the degree,because of its significant interest in the degree holders,also represents a negative evaluation of the academic level or academic ethics of the degree holders by the institutions of higher learning.Establish a clear,standardized system based on equally rigorous standards to ensure the legitimacy of degree revocation decisions and provide the necessary relief channels.The legal construction of the degree revocation system must be based on the nature of the degree revocation behavior,and the theoretical and practical circles have not yet reached a full consensus.According to the theory of typed administrative behavior,degree revocation is a special revocation of administrative license.A comprehensive review of the relevant conceptual systems,analytical frameworks,and judicial review standards of administrative licensing can be used.Because the degree has property interests and personal interests,the degree awarding behavior is beneficial to the applicant.On the contrary,degree revocation has a burden on the legal effect.However,degree revocation is not an administrative penalty.On the one hand,it does not have the disciplinary or sanctioned nature of administrative punishment,and it does not bring additional adverse burdens to degree holders.On the other hand,it is aimed at the relative person who does not have the conditions for granting the application,that is,the granting act itself lacks the factual basis,so it is necessary to achieve self-correction through revocation.This is different from the administrative punishment for the violations committed by the relatives.The degree revocation is the revocation of the degree awarding act,and the legal nature of the degree awarding act should be a special administrative license.Although the qualification process includes “confirm whether the applicant meets the conditions for granting the degree” and “permits or does not permit the applicant to obtain the degree”,the existence of the confirmation link does not constitute an independent administrative confirmation.The latter should be reflected in the final result of the behavior.In contrast,the degree-granting behavior,the link that best reflects its core characteristics is precisely the "permit".This link is expressed as the “unblocking”color on the final result,which gives the degree applicant certain qualifications and rights.This is obviously different from the fact that the administrative confirmation does not change but merely strengthens the relationship of rights and obligations.Therefore,the legal nature of the degree revocation is a special revocation of administrative license.Through the investigation of the current practice of degree revocation and the analysis of the status quo of judicial review of dismissal disputes,it can be found that there are still many defects in the degree revocation system in China.From the normative point of view,the law and regulations are seriously insufficient for the degree revocation system,and there is no substantive standard and procedural requirements that must be clarified for the degree revocation.The internal regulations of each university are different for the specific design of the degree revocation system,and violation of fundamental principles in administrative law such as the Due Process principle can be frequently seen.Judging from the practice of judicial review,the problems include: the scope of the judicial review is not clear,the intensity of the judicial review is not uniform,and the benchmark for judicial review is difficult to follow.As for the typical cases so far,such as Chen Ying V.Sun Yat-sen University and Yu Yanru V.Peking University,only a small part of the problem has been solved,and there are still a lot of blanks needs to be filled,such as the framework,standards and methods of judicial review.To systematically construct or improve the degree revocation system,a fundamental review must be conducted from the perspective of legal principles.There are three principles that are the basis of the degree revocation system: freely revoke,reliance interest protection,and due process.The freely revoke is a manifestation of the possibility that the administrative subject has corrected the administrative actions.The specific degree of revocation means that the higher education institution as a degree-granting unit has the right to make a decision to revoke the degree in accordance with the statutory procedures based on academic standards.According to this principle,whether or not the decision to revoke is finalized in the case of meeting the corresponding standards is the scope of the independent decision of the university.Of course,the making of relevant decisions cannot violate the mandatory provisions of laws and regulations.The relationship between reliance protection and degree revocation is manifested in the fact that a degree is an open,authoritative,permanent ability or qualification.Once the degree is granted,it will accumulate reliance interests.If the degree revocation decision would be made,the space in which the principle of reliance interest protection will be apply.The basic content of the principle of due process is not controversial.For the degree revocation system,the special importance of this principle is reflected in the consideration of the degree revocation decision.Academic standards have high professional knowledge barriers and are highly dependent on experts.Judgment,in order to ensure the neutrality and fairness of relevant decisions as much as possible,in particular,the principle of due process is required to provide some minimum boundaries to prevent “professional arbitrariness”.Based on the above-mentioned nature identification,current situation investigation,and refinement of basic principles,a specific system construction and improvement program is proposed.From the perspective of the substantive standards for degree revocation,the reasons for the degree revocation may be limited to purely academic reasons,namely academic misconduct.The specific types should include fraud,plagiarism,and non-self-completed categories.Therefore,the relevant provisions of the current "Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Academic Degrees" need to be revised in due course.From the point of view of the procedural requirements for degree revocation,it is proposed that a complete set of procedures should be established,including initiation,investigation,preliminary decision,notification,and appeal.Moreover,the power institutions in the university involved in the procedure,such as the degree revocation committee,etc.,should be given a clear and independent legal status.Therefore,the Regulations on Academic Degrees should be amended to include these rules of procedure.