T

o earn respect we accessorize. We put on decent clothes and, when reaching a certain age, coat our graying hair. Fake eyelashes are an industry all their own. The hunt for the KW brands, products imitating top fashion, although of lesser quality, has not waned, no matter how much designers cry out for harsher law enforcement.

The chase for fake degrees is another level of accessorizing that enables one to add a string of academic titles in front and behind one'€™s name. The dissolving of feudal society led to the titles of nobility being much less envied; they were replaced by the more sought-after haji, which signals one'€™s ability to have performed the pilgrimage mandatory for able Muslims, and by academic titles, the longer the better.

While the woman in manufactured eyelashes aims to look prettier, the aspirant for the fast and easy way of gaining an academic degree '€” as little as three months for a doctorate, as some ads claim '€” is going too far in rushing up the social ladder.

The most recent reports are that police are investigating the local network of the Berkley (not Berkeley) University headquartered in Michigan, US, which mainly provides long-distance learning. The Research and Higher Education Ministry became suspicious of requests for the legitimization of its '€œgraduates'€™'€ certificates, although last year a rector in East Nusa Tenggara had already been reported on suspicions that his title from Berkley was fake.

Apparently, reports of the degrees of the same institution emerged in 2005, which shows that the '€œuniversity'€ has continued to operate since then, even though its programs are listed as illegitimate by the states of Michigan and Texas, according to an education website.

Students and graduates of Berkley are only the latest sign of a big demand for degrees from those who only wish to acquire them with cash, not hard work.
Such services include the small-scale ones carried out on the streets that masquerade as mere typing services for students completing their theses. High-ranking officials and politicians have been exposed as holding fake degrees, but even at reputable institutions of higher education those with high positions and enough money can employ '€œassistants'€ who are not only involved in the research and writing of theses, but also sit in class as students, with the tacit knowledge of the university authorities.

When businesswoman and junior high school drop-out Susi Pudjiastuti was appointed to the current Cabinet, many hoped her glaring lack of degrees would inspire hard work and honesty. She has inspired some, but apparently not enough to kill the lucrative business built on the need for a fast track to respect and glory.