But I doubt he ever expected his own alma mater would be at the heart of a major NCAA investigation concerning improper benefits and academicfraud within the Tar Heel football program.
Such lapses of integrity are not unique to China, but poor peer-review mechanisms, misguided incentives and a lack of checks on academic behaviour all allow fraud to be more common.
Swartz, who committed suicide in January at age 26, was accused of federal computer and wire fraud crimes for downloading academic journals from J-STOR.
After downloading millions of academic papers from the online service JSTOR, Swartz was prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and faced up to 35 years in prison.
Ross Anderson, an academic in the Computer Laboratory at Cambridge University, who has spent 20 years researching bank-related fraud, is also unconvinced.