Keywords: overseas student, verification, overseas study, application materials, China, graduation certificate

According to the latest prediction, the number of Chinese overseas students will breakthrough 220,000 in 2010. These students are distributed in more than 103 countries and regions, mostly in America and Britain, and 60% of international students in Japan come from China. Even in small countries like Thailand, most of international students are Chinese. China has already become the biggest country exporting overseas students.

The first Chinese overseas student is Rong Hong, who went to America for study in 1847. After that China gradually opened its gate to western education.

In the past, international students impressed Chinese folks with good quality, profound knowledge and intelligence and were respected by the domestic people. However, recently, there are some derogatory news reports on Chinese overseas students.

Not long ago, some Chinese overseas students were enrolled by Newcastle University in Britain. But lecturers were suspicious after their English examinations and found that they were unable to keep up with courses. Though investigation, large numbers of their application materials are forged, mainly certificates for English language qualifications or degrees awarded by other universities. They are too genuine to be detected via regular checks. So the Newcastle University began to put great attention on reviews of Chinese’s students’ application materials.

In Japan, it is easy to get student visas due to lax approval, so many people fake application materials to go to Japan under the pretence of seeking education. Chinese overseas students’ illegal stays have been existent for quite a long time.

As China’s market for overseas study becomes chaos with the crazy interest in studying abroad, violated, fraudulent application materials emerge everywhere. This makes the quality of the overseas students uneven, which brings unnecessary financial loss to the universities, as well as potential dangers to social stability. How to prevent it? We should begin with verification of overseas study application materials.

The application materials for studying abroad are in a great variety and the procedures are complicated, which makes the material verification quite difficult. Take Japan for example, it requires submitting more than 20 kinds of materials, including the financial sponsor’s employment and tax certifications in recent 3 years, the photocopy of the business license of the entity financial sponsor, the applicant’s graduation certificate and school score record. The materials will be submitted to the university in Japan as the first step, and the university will appoint employees to verify these materials and then deliver these materials to the Immigration Bureau of Japan. The Immigration Bureau shall check these materials randomly and issue visas for the eligible applicants. After that, students have to apply for passports at China Exit-Entry Administration. Only if all these procedures are finished, could the applicant successfully go abroad for study.

Generally speaking, universities’ enrolment divisions and foreign entry organs conduct verifications by contacting the applicant’s former school or checking specific database authorized by the Ministry of Education of P.R.C. However, important materials regarding applicant’s identity, financial status and relevant notarization are still severely fabricated. Most of the fraudulent materials are photocopies, but there are faked original materials too, which look exactly the same as the real ones and make the verification much more difficult.

Foreign universities should enhance material verification and management at enrolment. However, in the light of the difficulty during this process, consultation to local independent third party in China, such as local business investigation companies, could be put into account because it will help save costs while shorten turn around time.