North Korea’s Cabinet Ministry of Education has ordered major universities in Pyongyang to stamp out the ghostwriting of graduation theses, sparking anxiety among soon-to-graduate students and their faculty advisers, according to a source inside the country.
The education ministry issued the directive in mid-August, telling each central university to “thoroughly eliminate” the practice of writing theses on students’ behalf, a Daily NK source in Pyongyang said Monday. Intensive inspections into how graduating students prepare their theses are expected to run for about a month.
Inspectors are expected to focus on whether students personally chose their thesis topics and took part themselves in gathering research materials and drafting their papers, the source said. For students who have already finished their theses, examiners plan to check whether they understand the material well enough to explain it in their own words.
It remains unclear whether the ministry will lead the inspections directly, hand the task to the Pyongyang city department of education, or have universities cross-check each other’s students, according to the source.
Theses often treated as mere formality
Ghostwriting graduation theses is reportedly common at North Korean universities. Unlike science and engineering-focused schools such as Kim Chaek University of Technology or Pyongyang Medical University, some humanities departments treat a passing thesis as good enough, even without meaningful research, the source said.
“At some liberal arts universities, there’s a strong belief that all that matters is getting the thesis approved, even without any notable research achievement,” the source said. “The thesis is treated as just a formality to earn a diploma, and it’s rare to hear of anyone failing to graduate because of their thesis.”
As a result, some students have prepared for graduation by asking classmates or underclassmen skilled at writing to complete their entire thesis for them, the source said.
With news of the crackdown spreading, universities are anxious about being caught up in the fallout. Ahead of the formal inspections, schools have reportedly begun reviewing graduating students’ thesis preparation on their own. Some are requiring students to document how they gathered materials and drafted their papers, while in certain departments, faculty advisers are holding one-on-one interviews with students to directly confirm their thesis topics and content.
“Students who already received help from someone else, or whose thesis preparation is lacking, are on edge, worried that problems could surface during the university’s internal review,” the source said. “Ghostwriting is not only a problem for students, since the faculty members who supervised the thesis cannot escape responsibility either, so professors are just as on edge.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
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August 25, 2026 at 01:36AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)