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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected].
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?
I’m a Canadian graduate of University of Toronto but I’m living in Kenya. I have a Chinese teaching offer. The Chinese embassy in Kenya said I must go to a Chinese embassy in Canada, in person, for verification. So do you think China immigration would accept your service instead?
Hi Christopher, thanks for your message. For purposes of applying for a China work permit, CSCSE verification certification should be acceptable. However, we cannot guarantee this because some local authorities can be arbitrary.
Dear Sir,
I applied to CSCSE for foreign Degree certification. CSCSE sent my degree to my home university for verification. The University response a week ago but still I am waiting for CSCSE response which is not received yet. what should I do next. Please assist me in this regard
Thanking you for anticipation.
Hi Dr. Muhammad. You will need to wait for CSCSE to make a decision on the application. If you believe the application is taking longer than it should, you can send an inquiry to CSCSE customer support at [email protected].
Hi Pete
Which department of an university will CSCSE contact? If I need to go university and ask them to respond the email of CSCSE, which department I should contact? How they will find out the correct email address of CSCSE?
CSCSE has not disclosed which specific department they will contact. For different universities, the department can be different. Neither do we know what is the email address CSCSE uses to contact universities.
Hi Pete,
I have been hired to work at an international school in Beijing. I want to get my degree from George Mason University authenticated with CSCSE. Do you know if this degree is accepted? I am in Canada and do not have a Chinese phone number o WeChat or Wepay what can I do to pay for the service? Also What do i do about a verification code since my number is not Chinese? What would your advice be to use this service if I am not in China and dont have a Chinese phone number or Wepay? Thanks
Hi Jo, thanks for your message. To find out whether your degree is acceptable by CSCSE, you have to actually try. You will need ask for a Chinese person’s help to use his/her phone number and make a payment on your behalf. We also offer the service to help file CSCSE verification application. If you are interested in using our service, please check here.
Great thank you Pete. I will find out what is best and get back to you about using your service. Could you please tell me how long the whole process would take? Do you happen to know if George Mason University degree is accepted? Thank you again. Jo
Hi Pete,
I hope you are doing well. Thank you replying to so many people who are trying to get their degrees verified through CSCSE.
I am also trying to do the same. I received my Master’s Degree in English in 2005, which is 18 years ago. I did not attend regular classes but I took up the same exams taken by college-going students, and I received the exact same certificate that the college-going students receive on successful completion of their Master’s Degree.
I have submitted an application for verification according to your instructions. I am just wondering if there is anything else I can do to help aid in the verification process because 1) I did not attend regular classes – so the verification of my Master’s degree may fail. 2) I obtained my Master’s Degree in 2005, which is 18 years ago – at that time – there was no computer-generated score cards – everything was handwritten.
Bangalore university is an esteemed university in India. I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter. Thank you so much!
Hi Rajan. I recommend that you follow up with your university to see if they have received any verification request from CSCSE and whether they can verify your 2005-issued degree.
Hi Pete,
After getting the verification request from CSCSE, my Institute in India has asked them to go through the verification link of the institute. And also make a payment of 100 USD. Does CSCSE will go through the institute protocol and make the payment? Do you know about it? Thanks in advance
Hi Susam. I’m not sure whether CSCSE will go through the verification link, but I know for sure they will NOT pay the USD 100 on your behalf.
Thanks Pete. My University has sent the verification request on 8th June. However, I have not received any response from CSCSE team yet.
Hello Pete,
I applied a month back for the authentication and now they are saying its denied as their was no response from my university. My institute are saying they did not receive an email from CSCSE. I wrote to [email protected] asking for the email address they sent the request though they are not replying. What can be done?
Hi Rishabh. Sorry for the late response. We just had Dragon Boat holidays.
You can request a free review of the application within 12 months. When you request the view, you will have a chance to leave a message to CSCSE. I suggest you wrote to CSCSE the email address of your university. However, CSCSE may or may not use it.
Hello!
Can I verify diploma at any time and use it in future or it has expiration date?
Hi Malika. CSCSE verification certificates do not have an expiration date.
Hello Pete,
My certificate didn’t get certified because they didn’t receive a response from my university. I contacted the university and they told me they didn’t receive an email and the gave me an email address which they receive the emails concerning the graduates matters, I wrote the university’s email in the review and when I press submit the site asks me to pay again even the it’s written the review is free of charge
Hi Mai, you will receive a fund a few days later after you make a payment for the review.
I’m happy to find you, it’s been stressful to have a document denied, we never thought that the probability lied on response they get abroad. now, in our case it’s been month since the degree was denied. my question is, should we contact the university abroad and ask them to check the email and reply or restart the process with CSCSE first?
Thanks for your message. I would restart the process with CSCSE first.
thank you, after following your instructions I was able to learn more about the site, however the person’s name has already been published as a fake. is it worth trying?
Sorry, I’m am unable to answer your question as I have no experience in dealing with the same issue.
thank you Pete
Hi
Your step-by-step application procedure is very helpful. I have submitted my application for degree certification and I got the confirmation email as well. The only issue I am faceing now to track my application. plz guide
Thanks
Hi Ubaid, thanks for leaving a message. There’s no detailed tracking information about the verification process. In the application “dashboard”, there is column titled “认证状态”. You will see an update of the “认证状态” when the verification is completed.
thanks for the information.
one more thing, How i’ll receive the certificate? via email or through the portal?
Both.
how much time cscse takes to send verification request to the degree issuance university after the submission of application.
so that i may ask or visit the university in that case.
I’m sorry. It is unknown. Probably a few days after the submission.
thanks for the information
Pete, I tried to use their services TWICE. They are really not very good at their jobs are they? Or perhaps they just collect data and frustrate people with degrees that were obtained outside China – as a way to spite those persons who did not study in China. Well, the second attempt, I even handed to them clear contacts for the degree awarding institutions, as well as accreditation details. They did not attempt to contact any of them. Their final decision was still, no response from the other side. No refund, This is a SCAM. Watch out folks. Use this service at your own peril.
Hi Bolton, I am sorry to hear about the failure of your CSCSE applications. I can understand your frustration and disappointment. Nevertheless, CSCSE is not a scam. CSCSE is an official institution of the Chinese government. Each year, CSCSE verifies thousands of degrees issued by foreign higher education institutions outside China. CSCSE, however, cannot verify every single degree. And no guarantee of success is given by CSCSE upon filing an application. Although you provided the contacts for the degree awarding institutions, CSCSE may or may not follow up the contacts as they have their own ways of communication with foreign universities. And how they communicate with foreign universities are unknown to the public in most cases.
Well, I have to say their service quality is not that good.
Hi Pete.
Thanks for creating this page I found it very helpful. I am having troubles with one issue, I have already submited and paid my application. However, I got an email saying that I had to upload more visas from my overseas studies during the time I studied. I have tried again and again and in the webpage, I am only able to review my application and the materials that I submitted, but I cannot upload any more documents. Do you know how to do this?
Thank you very much.
Hi Pablo, thanks for leaving a message. It is possible that CSCSE forgot to open the channel for you to submit the additional visas. I would suggest that you send an email to CSCSE at [email protected] with the additional documents and a brief description of the issue. Another solution is to give a call to CSCSE customer support at +86.010.62677800 and report the issue on the phone.
Hi Pete,
As per the reason CSCSE have stated “We’re currently unable to issue a certification result due to a lack of a valid reply to our research request” I’ve contacted my university, they needs the specific date of the initial email to provide a response or have to get another new request. Is it possible to request CSCSE again for this, since I don’t see any option for review. Also There is no way to see any internal progress before the result
Hi Dark, thanks for your message. Upon the first-time rejection of your CSCSE application, you should be given one-time opportunity to request a review free of charge. Unfortunately the system does not provide any information of the internal progress. CSCSE people always use email addresses ending with “@cscse.edu.cn”. You university can search for emails with this domain name.
Hi Pete
Actually My university informed me that there is a form that needs to be filled by CSCSE and a fee is required for verification(which is given in the university home page). Upon receiving this message I promptly informed CSCSE but they advised me to wait patiently without taking the input.
Hi Pete,
Do you have any idea of what email address they use to send authentication Msg to the Unveristies, is it the one that is mentioned on the CSCSE website?
Hi Hikmatullah,
CSCSE has many different employees. Each employee uses a different email address. We cannot know which email address they used to contact your university, but the email address should end with the same domain name as @cscse.edu.cn.
Hi pete,
The customer support of CSCSE is very bad. They have rejected my application once due to non response of my university. I have applied for a review and gone to my university many times and asked them to check their official inbox with the domain @cscse.edu.cn. They thoroughly checked and found no query from CSCSE. My university even received the query of other applicants in 2021 but they didn’t receive any related to my application. I have emailed several times to CSCSE [email protected] and always receive a generic email without any real input. I even called their customer support center but all they say is we don’t the process. Just wait for the final result. I mean how this process is run? when the CSCSE do not tell the email address they used to send the query, they don’t tell to which email of the university they have contacted and they even don’t confirm the date when they sent the query to the university? I am really disappointed by sending emails again and again, calling many times, and going to my university every day to ask them to check their email for CSCSE query. If they don’t send the query, they will reject the certification this time as well.
Hi Muhammad, CSCSE’s service is terrile. The issue you described here occurs to many other applicants. We have not found a good solution to the issue. CSCSE published another email address ([email protected]) on their website which is called “supervisor email”. You may want to complain the issue to this so-called “supervisor email”, although no response is likely to be given by CSCSE.
Hi Pete!
My application is in progress from Dec 12th 2023, I asked my University on Dec 19th and later on January 1st 2024 about the email from CSCSE, and they said we didn’t receive any email. Actually in my university, examination office handles degree verification affairs, I even wrote to CSCSE that they should contact exam office and even sent them exam office email address but still my university did not receive any email. so in such case what should I do next I have only 8 days after that my application for degree verification will be revoked.
Hi Hikmatullah,
Unforunately, there’s not much you can do. CSCSE’s service is not good. You may want to complain the issue to CSCSE’s supervisor ([email protected]), although no response is likely to be given by CSCSE.
Hello Pete!
Recently I found that my application for degree verification from CSCSE has been revoked because my university did not repsond on time to service center. Now I am applying for a review. However submitting for a review the next page shows a QR code to pay again. Although First review is free now I don’t know how to deal with this.
Hi Hikmatullah
You will need to make a payment for the review. However, your previous payment will be refunded a few days later to the same account which you used to pay for the first time. It’s a strange procedure.
Hello Pete!
thank you for all the information, if I want to authenticate my certificate but I did not find my university on the list of universities what should I do ?
Hi Shaden,
Thanks for your question. Not being on the list does not necessarily mean a failure of your degree verification. You will not be able to know whether your degree can be verified until you actually apply to CSCSE.
Hi I would like to inquire about my situation
I graduated from the University of London (distance learning) so my degree is directly from the University of London- I did not take online classes.
but rather I took in-person classes at HKUSPACE a recognized teaching institution where professors from the UK would come to HK and teach in-person classes. I would like to ask if there would be an issue regarding my situation.
Thank you
Hi Terrteel, thanks for the question. I’m sorry but I cannot answer your question with certainty. CSCSE’s current rules are unclear about whether a degree like yours can be verified or not. You will need to find it out by actually applying.
hello Pete
how are you?
please can you inform me how and where I print my certificate? I entered the user center but I didn’t find anything. cscse tell me to print it from user center but didn’t find anything and they are not responding to email.
Thank you