Hong Kong to crack down on dishonest education agents

Hong Kong leader, John Lee Ka-chiu, has vowed to cooperate with mainland Chinese authorities to target education agents who provide forged documents to students applying to local universities.

In remarks on 22 October 2024, the Chief Executive said that such fraudulent activities would be dealt with severely, as they jeopardise his administration’s efforts to enhance Hong Kong’s status as a hub for higher education.

There are situations where intermediaries make unscrupulous attempts to make money. If our law enforcement agencies know about these situations, they will definitely crack down and work with mainland agencies to tackle these illegal activities. But I believe that most of them are law-abiding.

He added that Hong Kong offers high-quality university education, making it appealing particularly to countries in the Middle East and those involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global trade project.

However, Lee cautioned that legal action would be taken against education agents caught using or supplying fake academic documents. He also emphasised that universities are responsible for identifying suspicious cases. “Universities must also strengthen their own systems in this regard”, he said.

Mr Lee’s remarks follow recent cases where universities in Hong Kong have discovered that applicants submitted fake academic credentials for admission. In July 2024, the University of Hong Kong’s business school disclosed that an internal investigation had detected 30 master’s students using fake documents to support their enrolment. The investigation was commenced after the school discovered that some students were using education agencies to obtain fake qualifications.

In a July 2024 statement the dean of the businiess school, Cai Hongbin, said:

The school hopes to summarise its experience in this investigation and publicise the means of these ‘illegal agencies’ in forging documents so other universities in Hong Kong can plug the loopholes while admitting students.

Despite the focus in Hong Kong on the issue of dishonest education agents, a report by the South China Morning Post on 22 October 2022 noted that a search for “promised acceptance” on the mainland’s e-commerce platform Taobao still brings up results from websites offering “special direct channels” that claim to guarantee admission to universities in Hong Kong and abroad.

Source: SCMP

Working with education education agents?

AgentBee’s education agent due diligence solution supports educational institutions to implement best practice education agent due diligence processes.

Educational institutions can use it to:

protect students – conduct initial and ongoing due diligence checks on education agents.
protect your brand – detect cases of unauthorised agents using your institution’s name, logo or other IP without permission.