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Translating a Chinese transcript, degree and graduation certificate

Updated 2026-08-08

The single most consequential fact here: 毕业证 and 学位证 are two different documents. A student can hold one without the other, and an admissions officer who receives only one will notice.

Two certificates, not one

This is the part that has no equivalent in most systems, and it is where translations mislead without containing a single wrong word.

A student who completes the coursework but fails a degree requirement — a thesis, a language threshold, a disciplinary matter — receives the graduation certificate and no degree certificate. The reverse also exists in some routes. Translating 毕业证书 as "diploma" or "degree" flattens this, and if only one certificate is submitted, the reader cannot tell whether the other is missing or was never issued.

Translate them as Graduation Certificate and Degree Certificate, and submit both if you hold both.

Graduation certificate fields

Degree certificate fields

学科门类 — discipline categories

The degree is conferred in a discipline, and the discipline is printed on the certificate. It maps to the degree name a foreign reader expects.

So 工学学士 is Bachelor of Engineering, and 理学硕士 is Master of Science. Note the trap: a computer science graduate may hold 工学 or 理学 depending on the school, and the certificate says which. Do not normalise it to whatever seems more natural in English.

Transcript fields

Header: 学校名称 institution, 院系 school/department, 专业 major, 学号 student number, 姓名 name, 性别 sex, 出生日期 date of birth, 入学时间 date of admission, 毕业时间 date of graduation, 学制 programme length.

Table columns:

Footer: 平均分 average score, 总学分 total credits, 教务处 academic affairs office, seal, 打印日期 print date, and often a 教务处长 signature.

Grading scales

Chinese transcripts use several, sometimes on the same page:

Do not convert grades. A percentage stays a percentage; 良好 stays "good". Converting 85 into a "B" or a 3.5 substitutes your institution's scale for the one the transcript uses, and credential evaluators do that conversion themselves with rules specific to the issuing university. A converted transcript can be rejected precisely because the evaluator cannot see the original values.

If the transcript prints the institution's grading key, translate the key. That is what lets the reader convert correctly.

Course names

The densest, most error-prone part of the job, and where structure breaks.

• Translate the discipline's standard term, not a literal gloss. 高等数学 is Advanced Mathematics, not "higher mathematics". 大学英语 is College English. 马克思主义基本原理 is Fundamentals of Marxism.
• Keep numbered series intact: 高等数学（一）and（二）become Advanced Mathematics I and II, not two courses with the same name.
• Translate one Chinese course title the same way every time it appears, including retakes. A retaken course that appears under two English names looks like two courses.
• English course names run two to three times longer than the Chinese. Rows will wrap. Check that each grade still sits on its own course's row after wrapping — this is the failure that produces a transcript where every grade is off by one and nothing looks obviously wrong.

Numbers that must survive

• Every credit value and the total credits.
• Every grade.
• The student number and both certificate numbers.
• The dates of admission, graduation and conferral.

Then check the arithmetic: the credits should sum to the printed total. If they do not, a row was lost — usually at a page break.

Verification, which may matter more than the translation

For academic documents, many foreign institutions and evaluators want verification rather than, or in addition to, a translation:

• CHSI / 学信网 (China Higher Education Student Information Network) issues online verification reports for degrees and enrolment, available in English.
• CSSD (China Higher Education Student Information and Career Center) issues verification reports for transcripts.
• Credential evaluators such as WES have their own China-specific requirements and often ask for a verification report sent directly to them rather than a translation from you — see WES and Chinese credentials, which is the guide most likely to stop you buying something you do not need.

Check the receiving institution's requirement before paying for a translation. If they want a CHSI report sent directly, a translation you commission does not substitute for it, and buying both is common only because people did not check the order.

Seals

[Round red seal: Office of Academic Affairs, XX University]
[Blind embossed seal: XX University]
[Signature] (President)

FAQ

Is 毕业证 a diploma?

It is a graduation certificate. English "diploma" is ambiguous — in some systems it is a sub-degree qualification. Use Graduation Certificate for 毕业证书 and Degree Certificate for 学位证书, and the ambiguity disappears.

Should I convert my GPA to a 4.0 scale?

No. Report what the transcript reports, including the scale it uses. Evaluators convert using institution-specific rules; a pre-converted figure gives them nothing to work with and can look like you were choosing your own conversion.

My university issues English transcripts. Should I use those?

Yes, if they are sealed and issued by the university. An institutional English transcript is stronger than a translation you commission, because it comes from the source. Many Chinese universities issue them on request.

The transcript has a course I do not recognise in English.

Look up the standard term used in that discipline's English-language curriculum rather than translating character by character. Political theory courses and physical education in particular have conventional renderings.

How many billable pages is a four-year transcript?

Typically three to five at 250 words per page. It is dense, multi-column and the highest-risk document in this whole category for row misalignment — see what translation costs.

Related guides

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• What USCIS actually requires of a translationThe rule is one sentence long. It asks for a complete English translation plus a translator's certification of accuracy and competence — and it says nothing about layout, notarisation, or agency credentials.
• What certified translation costs in 2026, and what the price is actually buyingAround US$25 a page is the going rate for online certified translation. Here is what that page is defined as, which five separate jobs the fee covers, and which of them you can do yourself.