Counterfeit application part of a larger problem

Faking college application materials is a serious problem as it is related to fairness in education and meritocracy.

I think the fundamental reason behind the problem is the lack of complete meritocracy in China.

Inadequate punitive measures, a tolerance for counterfeiting and the recruitment agencies need to be blamed for the rise in fraudulent applications.

Figures from the Ministry of Education show that by the end of 2013, more than 3 million Chinese had studied overseas since 1978. In 2013, 413,900 Chinese students were overseas, an increase of 3.58 percent from the year before.

Recruitment agencies are developing fast on the back of Chinese parents' rising demand to send their children for overseas study, but the market is in disarray because of a lack of management and supervision.

The counterfeiting is part of a larger problem. More Chinese students who studied overseas are returning after graduation. In 2013, 353,500 people went back to work in China after graduating from overseas universities, an year-on-year increase of 29.35 percent, according to the Education Ministry.

The Chinese government has welcomed these overseas returnees by offering various kinds of awards and preferential policies.

But students with fake application materials make it difficult to tell whether the money spent on recruiting them is worth it. Often, we spend a lot of money and have high expectations of overseas returnees but find out later that they are not up to the mark.

Wang Huiyao was speaking to He Na.