China to stop recognizing overseas online studies

Online studies at overseas institutions will no longer be recognized by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE), according to an announcement on Sunday.

The new arrangement will be applied from the spring semester of 2023 (the southern hemisphere's autumn semester).

Earlier, if students were forced to take courses online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their degrees can be verified as usual, it added.

With China downgrading the management of COVID-19 from January 8, the CSCSE decided to cancel the special certification rules in place during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, countries, which are major overseas study destinations, have opened their borders, and foreign universities have resumed face-to-face teaching.

The CSCSE will no longer provide services for overseas diploma certificates obtained in the spring semester of 2023 through online studies, except those under special circumstances.