Fifty overseas students, 49 of them from the mainland, were expelled from Britain’s Newcastle University this week.
British media reported that the expulsions occurred on Monday, and immigration and overseas study agents have said such a crackdown was long overdue.
Thirty-three of those expelled were graduate students.
University officials became suspicious when they found that some of the students enrolled for undergraduate and graduate degrees had failed compulsory English proficiency tests last month. A university degree has long been regarded as a basic requirement for mainland job seekers struggling to find a decent job in a fiercely competitive labour market.
And in recent years, as pockets have deepened, more Chinese students and their families are willing to do whatever it takes to get a place at an overseas university.
Many applicants do so because they worry that they are not competitive enough to get into a mainland university or have lost faith in the mainland’s rigid tertiary educational system.
Britain has become a popular destination for mainland students, and statistics from the British Council in China show that 23,000 Chinese students were granted student visas last year, with the number of applications for universities in Britain jumping by 61 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
The university told British media that it regretted having to expel the students because many of them appeared to be victims of bogus agents based either in China or Britain who were paid to submit applications, including supporting documents, on the students’ behalf.
Lily Dai - a senior consultant at the Chengdu branch of the Dipont Education Management Group, a Canadian-registered immigration and overseas studies consultancy - said it was common for mainland agents and agencies mostly set up by Chinese living in Britain to supply less-qualified applicants with fake documents to secure them places in overseas universities.
“My question is why it took so long for them to fail to notice the problem until now,” Ms Dai said.
She said most mainland students seeking to go to Britain had to pass a basic English language course to qualify, so agents in Britain were largely to blame for the fake documents, particularly at the undergraduate level.
Xiao Bu, a 27-year-old Guangxi native in charge of admissions for a private middle school in London, said he had been approached several times by agents of Chinese ethnicity representing students who might fail their A-levels and needed their services to be admitted to university. “They know that I know which students have low scores and might be their potential customers, so they call me,” he said.
Chen Jingsi ,who came back from Britain with a university diploma in 2005, said she was told that some agents in Britain charged £2,000 (HK$23,720) for a university offer letter.
The university has reportedly warned other institutions to be vigilant for fraudulent applications. Ms Dai said such scandals could endanger the reputation of British universities.
“British universities and the test administrators should take a good look at the way they recruit overseas students before it’s too late,” she said.
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49 Chinese students kicked out of UK university
Raymond Li and Zhuang Pinghui
14 November 2008
Fifty overseas students, 49 of them from the mainland, were expelled from Britain’s Newcastle University this week.
British media reported that the expulsions occurred on Monday, and immigration and overseas study agents have said such a crackdown was long overdue.
Thirty-three of those expelled were graduate students.
University officials became suspicious when they found that some of the students enrolled for undergraduate and graduate degrees had failed compulsory English proficiency tests last month. A university degree has long been regarded as a basic requirement for mainland job seekers struggling to find a decent job in a fiercely competitive labour market.
And in recent years, as pockets have deepened, more Chinese students and their families are willing to do whatever it takes to get a place at an overseas university.
Many applicants do so because they worry that they are not competitive enough to get into a mainland university or have lost faith in the mainland’s rigid tertiary educational system.
Britain has become a popular destination for mainland students, and statistics from the British Council in China show that 23,000 Chinese students were granted student visas last year, with the number of applications for universities in Britain jumping by 61 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
The university told British media that it regretted having to expel the students because many of them appeared to be victims of bogus agents based either in China or Britain who were paid to submit applications, including supporting documents, on the students’ behalf.
Lily Dai - a senior consultant at the Chengdu branch of the Dipont Education Management Group, a Canadian-registered immigration and overseas studies consultancy - said it was common for mainland agents and agencies mostly set up by Chinese living in Britain to supply less-qualified applicants with fake documents to secure them places in overseas universities.
“My question is why it took so long for them to fail to notice the problem until now,” Ms Dai said.
She said most mainland students seeking to go to Britain had to pass a basic English language course to qualify, so agents in Britain were largely to blame for the fake documents, particularly at the undergraduate level.
Xiao Bu, a 27-year-old Guangxi native in charge of admissions for a private middle school in London, said he had been approached several times by agents of Chinese ethnicity representing students who might fail their A-levels and needed their services to be admitted to university. “They know that I know which students have low scores and might be their potential customers, so they call me,” he said.
Chen Jingsi ,who came back from Britain with a university diploma in 2005, said she was told that some agents in Britain charged £2,000 (HK$23,720) for a university offer letter.
The university has reportedly warned other institutions to be vigilant for fraudulent applications. Ms Dai said such scandals could endanger the reputation of British universities.
“British universities and the test administrators should take a good look at the way they recruit overseas students before it’s too late,” she said.
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