A mainland Chinese student who pleaded guilty to offences related to using fake Ivy League qualifications to gain admission to the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has been jailed for nearly eight months.
Li Sixuan appeared at the Sha Tin Magistrates’ Court on Thursday morning to hear her sentence. She pleaded guilty last month to obtaining services by deception and possessing a false instrument.
The defendant used falsified documents, claiming that she had studied linguistics at Columbia University in the US, to apply for a master’s programme in applied linguistics at HKU in 2021, according to local media. She received an offer from HKU in 2022.
Handing down her jail term, Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong said Li used dishonest means to gain entry to HKU. He delivered a jail term totalling 240 days, or around eight months.
Separately, Li was also found in possession of a forged HKU certificate that claimed she had received a “distinction” in her final results, even though she only obtained a “pass.”
Li’s offences came to light following an HKU investigation last year, during which Columbia University confirmed that Li was not a graduate, local media reported.
After receiving Columbia’s reply, HKU requested to meet with Li. The university reported Li to the police in December after she refused the meeting and terminated her studies.
She was among scores of students arrested in recent years over faking their qualifications to apply to Hong Kong universities.
The government said in December that 25 people had been apprehended over the past three years for falsifying their credentials when applying for the city’s tertiary institutions.
According to local media, police investigations revealed that Li wrote in her application to HKU that she had graduated from Columbia University, majoring in linguistics.
Li told police that she actually graduated from Wuhan College, affiliated with Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, in 2020 and that she paid 380,000 yuan (HK$410,000) to an agent to help with her HKU application. She added that she did complete an online course offered by Columbia University.
