How do you translate a Chinese degree certificate that bears two universities' seals and two certificate numbers on the same page?
TL;DRA Chinese doctoral Degree Certificate (学位证书) was co-issued by two affiliated universities — Peking Union Medical College and Tsinghua University — bearing both institutional seals, both presidents' signatures, and two distinct certificate numbers on one page. We translated both institution names with their Chinese originals in parentheses, transcribed both certificate numbers digit-for-digit, described each seal in brackets, and added a Translator's Note explaining the joint-issuance convention. The certified translation was delivered for the client's WES credential evaluation packet.
Case Specifications
- Document
- Doctoral Degree Certificate
- Foreign Name
- 博士学位证书
- Country
- China
- Languages
- Chinese (Simplified) → English
- Submitted To
- WES (World Education Services) credential evaluation
What We Received
A client submitted a one-page 博士学位证书 (Doctoral Degree Certificate) conferring the degree of 医学博士 (Doctor of Medicine) in 影像医学与核医学 (Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine), dated June 25, 2021. The document is co-issued by Peking Union Medical College (北京协和医学院) and Tsinghua University (清华大学): both institutions' names appear in parallel signature blocks at the bottom of the page, each block carries the stacked titles 校长 (President) and 学位评定委员会主席 (Chair of the Degree Evaluation Committee), and the bottom row lists two separate certificate numbers — one for each institution. The translation was needed for a WES credential evaluation, and we delivered a certified <a href="/languages/chinese">Chinese translation</a> with a signed Translator's Certification.
Why This Required Special Handling
A US credential evaluator who has never seen a joint-institution Chinese diploma has three possible misreadings of a document like this. First, that the two institutions and the two certificate numbers represent two different degrees — which would imply duplicate study, a more elaborate credential set, or program-name inconsistencies. Second, that one of the two records is a duplicate or a clerical copy — which would invite suspicion about why the issuing office duplicated itself. Third, that the document is a composite assembled from two sources — which is the worst possible inference for a credential evaluator processing a translation under <a href="https://www.wes.org/required-documents/china/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">WES's China documentation rules</a>.
All three readings are wrong: this is a single degree conferred by a single joint program, and the dual presence is institutional, not duplicative. Peking Union Medical College has been administratively part of Tsinghua University since the late 2000s but operates as a distinct medical institution; its doctoral degrees are issued with both seals, with both presidents signing, and with one certificate number per institution under each one's national institution code (PUMC's 10023 and Tsinghua's 10003). The translator's job is to make this readable on the page, not to collapse the document into a single-institution form that does not match the original.
The presidential signatures themselves added a secondary challenge. Both were handwritten in blue ink and not clearly legible — and the temptation to attribute them to specific officeholders (the PUMC and Tsinghua presidents of record in June 2021) would have introduced names that the translator could not verify from the document. <a href="/guides/certificate-of-accuracy">Faithful certification</a> required marking each one as illegible rather than guessing.
How We Handled It
We rendered the title 博士学位证书 as 'DOCTORAL DEGREE DIPLOMA' and the conferral clause as 'having met the requirements for the award of a doctoral degree in the discipline (specialty) of Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, is hereby conferred the degree of Doctor of Medicine' — preserving the parenthetical '(specialty)' on 学科(专业) as it appears in the source.
The two parallel signature blocks were reproduced in a two-column English layout that mirrors the original: 'Peking Union Medical College (北京协和医学院)' on the left, 'Tsinghua University (清华大学)' on the right, each with 'President' and 'Chair of the Degree Evaluation Committee' stacked below the institution name. Both handwritten signatures were marked '[Illegible signature in blue ink]' rather than attributed to any specific officeholder.
The two certificate numbers — 1000322021001878 (Tsinghua: institution code 10003 + degree-type digit 2 + year 2021 + sequence 001878) and 1002322021000108 (PUMC: institution code 10023 + degree-type digit 2 + year 2021 + sequence 000108) — were transcribed digit-for-digit and kept on a single line under the heading 'Certificate No.', matching the original layout. The Chinese-numeral date 二〇二一年六月二十五日 was rendered as 'June 25, 2021' in standard US convention.
"The date in the original is written using Chinese numerals (二〇二一年六月二十五日 = June 25, 2021) and has been rendered as Month DD, YYYY. Two presidential signatures (handwritten, blue ink) appear in the signature block — both are not clearly legible and have been marked as illegible. In the original, the title '校长' (President) and '学位评定委员会主席' (Chair of the Degree Evaluation Committee) are listed beneath each institution name, indicating the signatory holds both roles for the respective institution. Two certificate numbers (1000322021001878 and 1002322021000108) appear on the original, corresponding to the two joint awarding institutions."
The Outcome
The certified translation was delivered as a DOCX with a signed Translator's Certification page, alongside the paired Graduation Certificate translation (a separate order, covered in our <a href="/cases/chinese-phd-graduation-certificate-vs-degree-certificate">parallel-certificates case study</a>). The translation gave the WES reviewer a single English document that clearly named one degree, both co-issuing institutions, and both certificate numbers on the same record — preserving the joint-issuance convention on the page rather than collapsing it.
What This Means for You
A certified translation of a jointly issued Chinese degree certificate must preserve both institutional identities — both seals, both signature blocks, both certificate numbers — exactly as they appear on the original. Collapsing the document into a single-institution form, picking one of the two certificate numbers, or attributing the illegible signatures to named officeholders all introduce information that is not on the page and weaken the translation's status as a faithful rendering of the source. If you are filing a Chinese doctoral credential with WES, ECE, or USCIS and your Degree Certificate carries more than one university name, run the document through a <a href="/guides/foreign-credential-translation">foreign-credential translation checklist</a> first: both institutions, both seals, and both numbers should appear in the translation, and the joint-issuance convention should be documented in the Translator's Notes.
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We translate Chinese academic credentials — including jointly issued doctoral diplomas, transcripts, and degree certificates — for WES, ECE, ECFMG, USCIS, and US universities, preserving institutional identities, seals, and certificate numbers exactly as the original presents them.
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Sources & References
- Required Documents — China (Mainland)·World Education Services·Verified 2026-05-19
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