UK Watchdog, an independent research group, has been exploring the University of London controversy over the 1984 PhD award to Republic of China in-exile President Tsai Ing-wen. Tsai triggered allegations of academic fraud when she submitted her PhD thesis entitled Unfair Trade Practices and Safeguard Actions to the London School of Economics and Political Science, 35 years late. Tsai refuses to release her oral examination viva report keeping the controversy alive.
UK Watchdog begins its latest report chapter on September 23, 2019, when Dun-Han Chang, one of President Tsai’s spokespersons, responded to the controversy arising from Tsai’s LSE student record which disclosed that Tsai was not re-registered for 1982-1983 and withdrew from course on November 10, 1982, due to financial difficulties. Tsai had already met the PhD requirement, so no registration was required for any courses. Subsequently, the London School of Economics issued certificates to Tsai for her to apply for student visa extensions, allowing Tsai to complete her doctoral thesis.
Chang disclosed two certificates issued by LSE for Tsai to extend her student visa after Tsai withdrew from course on November 10, 1982.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the UK Home Office provided the “Immigration Rules of 1982 and 1983 promulgated under section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971.” The Rules, when Tsai was a student, prohibited international students from extending student visas without formal registration.
Immigration Rule 107 states an extension for an appropriate period might be granted if the student produced evidence that he was enrolled for a full-time course of daytime study which meets the requirements for admission as a student, and was able to maintain and accommodate himself without working and without recourse to public funds.
Immigration Rule 21 states that a passenger seeking entry to study in the UK should be admitted if he had been accepted for a course of study at a university, granted an entry clearance, and was able to meet the cost of the course and his own maintenance and accommodation without working and without recourse to public funds.
Thus, according to these rules, for Tsai to extend her student visa, she had to be registered for a full-time course of daytime study with the LSE and be able to support herself financially.
UK Watchdog compared the Immigration Act with a LSE student file, designated the VV file, and discovered the law was enforced for LSE students. The research team obtained the VV file as a control file to learn what Tsai Ing-wen’s file should have looked like. VV is a now deceased classmate of Tsai’s and her file is no longer protected by the personal data exclusion that keeps Tsai’s file secret.
Despite its value and UK Watchdog’s continued use of the VV file as a control, the file is not without some controversy. Max Chiang, who is talk show host Dennis Peng’s lawyer, appeared on the True Voice of Taiwan program and fabricated an imaginary scenario that had the LSE supply Tsai with the VV file to construct a counterfeit student file. UK Watchdog prepared a correction for Peng to broadcast correcting the errant attorney, but Peng refused allowing Chiang’s false analysis to go uncorrected for the show viewers.
VV’s PhD was in the field of International Relations. For VV’s research in a foreign country, VV submitted her first application form for a certificate of registration on February 23, 1981.
Eight different types of certificates or standard statements were listed in the application form. Two were certificates to be submitted to the UK Home Office or immigration authorities of foreign countries. They were issued either for confirming registration or stating that the student was expected to re-register for the next session if the certificate was issued towards the end of the session. They indicate that the application form was designed to satisfy the registration requirements of immigration laws in general and the UK Immigration Act 1971 in particular.
A certificate was issued to VV on February 23, 1981, confirming that VV had been registered with the LSE since October 1980 and was expected to remain registered at least until June 1982. On August 27, 1981, VV submitted another application form. “Date of registration, title, and length of course” was the information to be given by the LSE in the certificate.
The second certificate was issued to VV on August 27, 1981, certifying the registration information and stating that VV was expected to remain registered until at least June 1982. Both certificates were reproduced from a template confirming the registration or expected re-registration to satisfy the registration requirements provided in immigration laws in general or the UK Immigration Rules in particular.
The LSE issued two certificates to Tsai. The first was on November 22, 1982, less than two weeks after Tsai withdrew from course on November 10, 1982. It was not reproduced from the template confirming the registration or expected re-registration. On the contrary, it certified that Tsai was only registered with the LSE from October 1980 until September 1982. It is inconsistent with Tsai’s LSE student record which ended registration in June 1982.
An email from the LSE on July 13, 2011, confirms that Tsai’s registration only lasted until June 1982. The certificate further certified that Tsai had completed the minimum period of registration required for PhD degree.
UK Watchdog states the “minimum period of registration” was a term made up by Kevin Haynes, Head of the LSE Legal Team, on December 18, 2020, to justify Tsai’s period of unregistered student status. In addition, the minimum period of registration made up by Haynes was two academic years. The term “minimum period of registration” or something to that effect cannot be found in the LSE Calendars in the early 1980s.
PhD students were required to be registered all the time; the difference was the required fees, a sessional fee for the first three years, or a continuation fee thereafter if continued registration was permitted.
According to Tsai’s LSE student record, registration was from October 1980 to June 1982 Not two calendar years from October 1980 to September 1982.
Coincidentally or not, a letter written by P. C. Kennedy at the University of London’s Central Registry Academic Division, made the same mistake. Kennedy confirmed that the minimum period of study for the PhD degree was two calendar years. Furthermore, it stated that Tsai wishes to continue to prepare her thesis for examination on a full-time basis without further formal registration at the School, as it is permitted by the Regulations of the University of London.
However, there were no such provisions in the UL Regulations. Even if there were, the Immigration Rules promulgated under the United Kingdom Immigration Act trumped the Regulations of the UL, not vice versa.
Tsai needed to extend her student visa twice. The second certificate was issued on June 10, 1983, five days before Tsai submitted her doctoral thesis. This time around, Tsai’s registration was from October 1980 to November 1982. It certified that Tsai was about to submit her thesis for examination and needed to be in the UK for her PhD exam in about early October for the oral viva examination to be completed.
Tsai’s PhD exam was arranged by the UL, not the LSE. Furthermore, since examiners needed at least six to eight weeks to read the thesis, Tsai’s PhD exam could not be arranged until she submitted her doctoral thesis for the viva exam.
Based on the LSE application form found in the VV file, it was unlikely that the LSE disregarded the UK Immigration Act 1971 and issued those two certificates tailored to Tsai’s special condition.
UK Watchdog concludes that since Tsai was required to support herself financially in order to extend her student visa it was unlikely that the LSE issued these two certificates knowing that Tsai terminated her registration early due to financial difficulties.
It is unknown when Tsai left London. According to Tsai’s game plan in her Overseas Student Job Application Registration Form, before March 1983, Tsai had already prepared to leave and planned to return to Taiwan to teach in May 1983.
However, Tsai did not return to Taiwan in May 1983 as planned. Based on Tsai’s Entry and Exit Record released by the National Immigration Agency, her return date was June 30, 1983.
In October 2011, Tsai published her autobiographical memoir, From Scrambled Eggs with Onions to Her Bento Box: Ing-wen Tsai’s Taste of Life. According to her memoir, in addition to applying for a teaching position in Taiwan, Tsai was traveling around and thinking about teaching at the University of Singapore before she returned to Taiwan on June 30, 1983.
“After getting my PhD, I had a crazy idea: I wanted to burn my doctoral thesis and never read law books again because I had had enough. I traveled around and thought about teaching at the University of Singapore. I don’t know how long it took before my father finally found me in a corner of the world; he called me and told me to return to Taiwan.”
Tsai in fact traveled around before returning to Taiwan. She flew with China Airlines not from London, but from San Francisco on June 30, 1983. This indicates that Tsai left London much earlier than her planned return date, May 1983, and her actual return date, June 30, 1983, allowed her to travel around until her father finally found her in a corner of the world.
According to Tsai’s story in a public speech on March 17, 2011, she did not just think about teaching at the University of Singapore; she was ready to go before returning to Taiwan on June 30, 1983.
“What would be my next step? I was already a doctor. My father said it was time to go home, but I didn’t feel like to. I began applying for schools. At that time, a lecturer’s pay at a university in the U.K. was about £5,000, but a heavy tax would be levied, about one-third. You could only afford a living in the slums for £3,000 a month. I asked myself if I wanted to continue my poor student life. At that time, the University of Singapore began interviewing teachers. I prepared to apply for the University of Singapore, which offered £10,000 and free housing loan. Would you like to go? I really wanted to go. Years after I was the Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council, I met Lee Kuan Yew and told him I really wanted to teach at the University of Singapore back then. He said it was a pity I didn’t go; if I did, I would hold a post in Singapore instead of the Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council. Singapore, I was ready to go, but my father called and told me to go home. So, I went home. After I went home, I began teaching.”
These records show that between November 10, 1982, and June 30, 1983, Tsai was too busy to prepare her thesis for examination on a full-time basis as certified by the first certificate for extending her student visa.
As she had planned, Tsai began teaching at Soochow University on September 1, 1983. Tsai claimed that in addition to teaching she passed two law exams obtaining licenses in Taiwan and the United States.
“After for one month, the moment you turned your thesis in, the feeling was you never wanted to take an exam again, and you wanted to burn your thesis. But my father said: “After all, you major in law and should get a license.” I began my exam career again. I sat the New York bar exam and got my license. After that, I felt that something was unaccomplished. So, I took an exam to get my license in Taiwan. Those two licenses are hung on the wall in my house. My exam career was finally put to an end, and my teaching career began.”
UK Watchdog says this statement indicates that Tsai did not need to be in the UK for her PhD exam in about early October for the examination to be completed, as certified by the second certificate for extending her student visa. According to Tsai’s own account, between June 30 and September 1, 1983, Tsai was busy preparing and taking her bar exams in New York and Taiwan, not her PhD exam in London.
On March 10, 2020, these two certificates issued for Tsai to extend her student visa on November 22, 1982, and June 10, 1983, respectively, were sent to the LSE for authentication. On July 23, 2020, Kevin Haynes found both certificates in Tsai’s LSE student file stored in the LSE Archives, pages 101 and 89, respectively, and verified them as authentic.
UK Watchdog asks who wrote these two certificates that were inconsistent with the UK Immigration Act 1971?
The research team asks one more question. How and when did these two certificates end up in Tsai’s LSE student file stored in the LSE Archives?
Tsai’s account of beginning her teaching career raises its own questions. The timeline as told by Tsai doesn’t match up with the facts. Tsai began her teaching career years before obtaining a New York law license (since suspended). According to the New York State Unified Court System, Tsai was admitted to the New York Bar four years later on July 28, 1987.
After thorough research, Winifred Tung reported that Tsai never took a bar exam in Taiwan.
Tsai’s law license in Taiwan was received through a special route in reliance on her teaching experiences at Chengchi University and Soochow University and reported to the Examination Yuan on June 1996.
A bar examination that doesn’t exist ratchets up concerns about the thesis viva exam and its undisclosed examination report. Tsai’s apparent violation of the UK Immigration Rules opens up serious questions about the possibility of academic fraud.
No thesis on file until June 2019. No examination fee paid. Not registered for school. No supervisor. Secret viva examination report. Unregistered study prohibited by law. The negatives are adding up or as some like to say, the optics don’t look good.
Richardson Reports 