Over 30 students caught using fake documents to enroll in HKU Business School

More than 30 students used fake diplomas and other documents to enroll in a master’s degree program at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) Business School.

In a statement sent to HKFP on Friday, HKU Business School said it launched an investigation in May into the qualifications of all students currently enrolled in the master’s degree programme after it was discovered that some of them had hired agents to provide them with false documents in order to gain admission.

The school said police had begun investigating the incidents, but because agents involved in the counterfeiting were believed to be in mainland China and overseas, it was difficult to identify. No Hong Kong agents have yet been identified.

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

The 24-year-old was charged with using false documents, and the case went to court. The 34-year-old was detained for the duration of the investigation.

HKU Business School said it had not yet decided how to deal with students using forged documents.

“The school has focused on investigating illegal agents to meet their legal obligations. We hope that the investigation will raise awareness and potential clients of these illegal agents will realize that in the end, they will not receive a degree from HKU but a criminal record or even worse, imprisonment,” the school said in a statement in Chinese.

It also said that HKU Business School is one of the best business schools in the world. “Because it is difficult to enroll and there are so many applications, HKU Business School has become a target for illegal agents.”

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

Cai Hong-bin, the school’s dean, told Caixin that investigations were ongoing. “We may catch 80 to 100 students with fake documents,” Cai said in Chinese.

“Guaranteed admission”

According to the school, some illegal agents offer clients “guaranteed admission” to HKU for a fee of around RMB 500,000 (HK$537,400) per application.

After conducting an investigation, the school discovered that some students and their parents were actively cooperating with agents who prepared fake diploma documents, while others were unaware that the agents were submitting fake qualification documents on their behalf.

The school found that in some cases, students thought agents had simply helped them “polish up” their personal statement and academic experiences, when in fact the agents had forged degree certificates from top US universities and submitted them to HKU Business School.

Paper copies of these documents were sent to HKU from the United States, which the university said made it difficult to distinguish originals from fakes.

Growing enrollment

In recent years, HKU Business School has seen a rise in the number of students enrolled in its Masters programmes, which now offer eight programmes, including accounting, finance and global management.

According to university statistics, 4,562 students enrolled in business and economics programs for the 2022-23 academic year, an increase of more than 200 percent compared to enrollments in the 2018-19 academic year.

All of these master’s programs are self-funded, with no government funding. According to the HKU website, the tuition fee for one academic year of the Master of Finance is HK$462,000, while for the Master of Global Management, it is HK$392,000.

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

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