Foreign nationals may be asked to have their degrees verified, while applying for a China work permit or other purposes related to China. If the degree is issued by a university outside China, an applicant may be required to get the degree verified by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) under the Ministry of Education, which is probably an easier and cost-efficient way to verify the degree.
CSCSE is a national institution that provides a variety of services related to international education. One of its services is to verify degrees issued by international universities. For more details, please visit https://zwfw.cscse.edu.cn/.
Based on the desirability and eligibility of the expatriates, determined by a comprehensive evaluation system, work permits in China can be classified into three types – Type A, Type B and Type C.
Type A work permit applies to highly qualified talents. In practice, the most common Type A work permit applicants are those whose salary is more than six times the social average salary of the city. They are not limited by education degree or working experience and do not have to go through the process of degree verification in China.
Type B work permit is the most common type, which applies to professional people in line with labor market demand. Those whose salary is four times higher than the average of local employees can also be exempted from academic qualification verification upon initial application. Subsequent renewals must be supported by evidence of relevant salary commitments.
Specifically in Shanghai, according to the "Shanghai Foreign Talent Position in Urgent Need Catalogue (Trial)", some professionals with certain majors can be exempted from the academic qualification verification.