Editorial | Hong Kong must step up efforts against fraudulent university applications
Heightened vigilance and stronger law enforcement are needed against people who cheat the system, to protect the ‘Study in Hong Kong’ brand
Vigilance has rightly been stepped up after some non-local students were found to have fake academic credentials in recent years. The Chinese University of Hong Kong said it had rejected “several hundred” admission applications suspected of using fraudulent qualifications, adding that it had enhanced vetting with artificial intelligence.
It is regrettable that suspected fraud was also discovered in other institutions. The University of Hong Kong said hundreds of suspected cases had been identified and it would report such cases to the police for further investigation and prosecution if there was concrete evidence of fraudulent misrepresentation. Baptist University said the number of suspected cases had not shown a significant increase this year and it had provided relevant information to the police for follow-up action.
A total of 55 people were arrested between January 2022 and July this year; six of them were eventually convicted. In October last year, a mainland student was jailed for 17 weeks for using fake papers to obtain a visa and gain admission to the University of Hong Kong.
While it is good that some universities have stayed vigilant and stepped up vetting with new technologies, there are also concerns about whether some fraudulent cases might have slipped through.