Over 30 students caught using fake docs to enrol at HKU Business School

Over 30 students were found to have used forged degree credentials and other documents to enrol in master’s programmes at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) Business School.

In a statement sent to HKFP on Friday, HKU Business School said it had in May launched a probe into the credentials of all students currently enrolled in master’s programmes after finding out that some had hired agents to produce fake documents to secure admission.

The school said police had started investigating the incidents, but as the agents involved in the forgeries were believed to be located in mainland China and overseas, it was challenging. No Hong Kong agents had yet been identified.

In response to enquiries from HKFP, the police said a 24-year-old mainland Chinese woman had been arrested on June 22 and a 34-year-old mainland Chinese woman had been arrested on July 3 in connection with the case.

The 24-year-old was charged over using false documents and the case has been mentioned in court, while the 34-year-old had been detained for investigation.

HKU Business School said it had not reached a decision regarding how to deal with students using forged documents.

“The school has been focusing on investigating illegal agents, to pursue their legal responsibilities. We hope the investigation can raise awareness, with potential customers of these illegal agents realising that what they will ultimately get is not a diploma from HKU, but a criminal record, or even worse, imprisonment,” the school said in the statement in Chinese.

It also stated that HKU Business School was one of the top business schools in the world. “Because it is hard to enrol, and there are so many applications, HKU Business School has become the target of illegal agents.”

According to a report by mainland Chinese media Caixin, all of the students involved in the forgery case were Chinese with forged certificates from foreign universities. When asked whether the students accused of submitting fake documents were mainland Chinese, HKU Business School did not directly respond.

Cai Hong-bin, dean of the school, said in an interview with Caixin that investigations were ongoing. “It’s possible that we can catch 80-100 students with forged documents,” Cai said in Chinese.

‘Guaranteed admission’

According to the school, some illegal agents offer customers “guaranteed admission” to HKU for a fee of around RMB500,000 (HK$537,400) per application.

Following investigation, the school found out some students and their parents were actively cooperating with agents to produce fake diploma documents, while others did not realise the agents submitted forged credentials on their behalf.

The school said in some cases, students thought the agents simply helped them “polish” their personal statement and academic experience, when in reality the agents had forged graduation certificates from top US universities and submitted them to HKU Business School.

Hard copies of these credentials were mailed to HKU from the US, which according to the school made it difficult to distinguish real from fake.

Rising enrollment numbers

The HKU Business School has seen a rising number of students enrolled in its taught master’s programmes in recent years. It currently runs eight such programmes, including in accounting, finance, and global management.

In the 2022-23 academic year, according to the university’s statistics, 4,562 students were enrolled in taught master programmes under the sector of business and economics, an increase of over 200 per cent compared to enrolments in 2018-19.

These taught master programmes are all self-financed, without government funding. According to HKU’s website, tuition fees for one academic year of the master of finance are HK$462,000, while that for the master of global management costs HK$392,000.

HKU Business School did not respond to HKFP’s questions about admissions procedures for these programmes, including whether there were any written tests or interviews requested.

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