This article explains how to get your international degree verified by China’s Ministry of Education (MOE). Please note that degrees in this article refer to degrees issued by international universities outside China, not Chinese universities. Verifying a Chinese degree is a different process that is not within the scope of this article.
Foreign nationals may be asked to get a degree verified for applying for a China work permit or other purposes related to China. If the degree is issued by a university outside China, you may be required to get the degree verified by one of the followings: (1) a Chinese consulate/embassy, (2) foreign consulates in China, or (3) the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) of MOE. This article is all about the process for method (3) which is probably the easier and most cost-efficient way to verify your degree.
Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) is a national institution directly under China’s Ministry of Education. CSCSE provides a variety of services related to international education. One of its services is the verification of degrees issued by international universities. Below we show you step-by-step how to get the verification done online with CSCSE.
(If you need our assistance in filing your application for degree verification, please click here to learn more about our service.)
Create a CSCSE Account
1. On your internet browser, go to the CSCSE website and click 登录.
2. Click 立即注册.
3. Enter your 手机号码 and check the box next to 我已阅读并同意<<用户注册协议>>和<<用户授权和隐私保护条款>>. Click 获取验证码 to get a verification code via text message. After entering the verification code, click 下一步.
4. Enter your personal information in the required fields and click 注册.
5. The following page will appear if your registration has been successful.
Submit Your Application for Degree Verification
1. On your internet browser, go to the homepage of the CSCSE website and click 登录.
2. Enter your username and password. Complete the verification slider. Click 登录. For foreign nationals, the username is your passport number.
3. You will see the homepage of CSCSE website if the login is successful. Click 办理认证申请.
4. Click 增添认证办理申请.
5. Click 我接受以上协议，继续申请. (For Chinese users, there will be an additional step between Step 5 and 6. The additional step requires you to go through the procedures for real-name authentication. This article does not cover the additional step.)
6. Review your personal information and click 下一步.
7. Select 国（境）外学历学位认证 and click 下一步.
8. Fill in the information about the degree that needs to be verified and click 下一步.
9. Add information about your other educational background. At least one more school you went to since high school. Then, click 下一步.
10. Follow the instructions to upload your documents and click 下一步.
11. Review your information and click 提交.
12. Confirm the amount of payment and click 支付.
13. Use WeChat or Alipay to scan the QR code and make a payment.
The submission of your application is completed after the payment is successful. You should receive both email and text message notifications sent by CSCSE confirming that the application is being processed. Typically, it takes CSCSE about 10 to 15 days to issue the verification certificate. The certificate is a digital document. No paper certificate can be provided. Below is a sample CSCSE degree verification certificate.
Not every international degree can be verified by CSCSE. Two common reasons for failure are (1) the degree is obtained through an online program without attending classes in person and (2) CSCSE fails to get a response by email from the university that issues the degree. If your application is rejected, CSCSE will issue a notification stating the reasons (see below a sample).
Conclusion
Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you find any errors or have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Can this be done from outside China?
The personal information page asks for a domestic mobile number.
Hi Billy. Thanks for leaving a message. You must have a Chinese phone number to register the account. The phone number needs to receive a SMS verification code. If you are outside China, you may want to borrow a phone number from a Chinese person.
Hi Pete , I am applying for university of mumbai and I don’t have a email address to add of the department. In this case what can be done ? I do have a the recent most verification certificate provided for my degree … but I don’t know where can I upload it ? Please advise .
Hi Garrett. In many cases, CSCSE can complete the authentication of a degree without the applicant providing the university’s email. All you can do is to go ahead give it a try to apply for the authentication and see what happens. If CSCSE needs you to provide an email from your university, CSCSE will send you a notification after receiving your application. You can upload your “verification certificate” in the section “辅助材料”. It’s the same place where you upload your transcript.
Hi,
I could register from outside China using email. Now my question is, can I pay via credit/debit card? I don’t have wechat pay or alipay.
Hi Yermek. Unfortunately, CSCSE has not added a cross-border credit/debit payment method.
Thanks for the reply. Good news is that apparently Alipay can now be used with foreign bank cards, although I haven’t tried yet myself.
My degree was not authenticated because of reason #2. ‘The issuing (US) university failed to respond’. In this case, is there no recourse?
Many universities outsource degree verifications to 3rd party sites due to the high volume of degree requests they receive. I was even able to verify my degree on my own through the 3rd party site. The fact that the Ministry of Education doesn’t acknowledge the fact that a high number of universities use 3rd party sites and makes no contingency for completing the authentication through them is astounding.
Hi Harold. Thanks for leaving a message. CSCSE does know that many universities use a third-party service for degree verification. However, CSCSE may not have experience working with your university in particular. I recommend that you request a review of your application and provide CSCSE with evidence of the third-party verification and a brief explanation about your university using the third-party service. You can request the review within 12 months and it’s free of charge.
Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
I did just as you suggested and requested a review; this time even including screen captures of the official university webpage redirecting degree verification queries to the specific 3rd party site. Rejected again.
This latest rejection message seems to stress the point that they have not gotten a valid response ‘有效回复’ from my university in email form. They urged me to get in touch with the university to verify the effective contact method. This message, along with your insight, Pete, leads me to conclude that they probably are indeed unfamiliar in dealing with my school.
The conundrum is this: The university website clearly states that they process degree quires through a third party (and I presume categorically relegates MOE emails to their junk folder). Conversely, MOE seems unable to take the schools website declaration at face value until they receive an email of some sort. Any ideas on how to get either side to budge on this?
If MOE needs to implore additional help from the applicants themselves to complete the verification task with an unfamiliar school, one would think it’d be expedient for them to admit as much and provide a checklist of acceptable methods of fixing the problem, but that’s asking too much from a government entity, I suppose.
Any additional advice you have would be greatly appreciated.
Just thought I’d add. My university is part of the California State University (CSU) system. Which I assume is fairly well known to those familiar within education organizations.
Hello Harold. I’ll get in touch by email.
How do I know if the process was approved? Do they send an email? Where on the website can I check this information?
Hi Isa. You should receive a notification by both SMS and email if the process was completed.
Hi, Where should I look for to see the status of my evaluation? I used a Chinese friend’s bank acount to sign up, but used my email and number to register I log in and nothing has changed, it’s only been 12 working days so I guess I should be so alarmed yet. Also one thing I noticed is it says I haven’t completed real name verification, but when I go to, it says: 证件类型为身份证号的用户，点击保存信息后将自动完成实名认证，可前往“查看实名状态”查阅实名认证结果
and when it’s ready do I click on get results or check my application?
Hi Llam. Thanks for leaving messages. Can you please confirm if you have submitted the application successfully? If yes, you should be able to see the application status right after you log into your account.
Hi yes it just says 认证 I’ve paid for it and been waiting 3 weeks for an update
Hi Liam. You may want to send a follow-up email to renzheng@cscse.edu.cn asking about the status of your application.
Hi I’m trying to email from Gmail but it says the address is non existent
Hi Liam. It’s unlikely. I sent an email to renzheng@cscse.edu.cn a couple of days ago. Please check the recipient’s email address or use another email server to send it.
Hi,
yes the email is fine, however, I’ve since got my certification back but it says it has failed as they have tried to contact my university multiple times only for them to not reply
Hi Llam. Sorry, this is not within our ability to help. You will have reach your university and ask for the correct email address where CSCSE should send a verification request and expect to get a response.
my university is Lancaster if that helps
Dear Sir,
I hope you are doing well. I have applied for degree authentication of my Ph.D. certificate from the Chinese service center for scholarly exchange last week. I have made a little mistake in that I wrote the date of birth wrong. Please tell me the way to correct my date of birth.
Hi Abdul. Unfortunately, the current system does not allow you to make a correction after you submit the application. You could inform CSCSE of the error by sending an email to renzheng@cscse.edu.cn.
My concern is, If applicant is outsider (not from China) then how he will upload entry and exit record in last section of upload section when he didn’t study in China?