New Oriental declares ‘zero tolerance’ for fraud

Beijing New Oriental Vision Overseas Consulting Co, a division of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, declared zero tolerance for academic fraud, in response to a Reuters report that the company has allegedly engaged in US university application fraud and arranged introductions to admissions officers at US universities for their student clients.



Reuters reported on Friday that New Oriental's US consultants arranged for "dozens"of US admissions officers to meet the company's student clients and give them advice on application.



It also noted that the company provides inappropriate application services for their clients, including "writing or polishing" their application documents and falsifying high school records.



In wake of the report, the American International Recruitment Council said it will investigate New Oriental, according to a separate Reuters report, citing Jeet Joshee, president of the council.



Vision Overseas claimed on its official Sina Weibo account on Saturday that the report "misunderstood" China's overseas education consulting sector and only gave one-sided statements by its former employees to imply that China's overseas education consulting companies cheat on US university applications.



The company said inviting US admissions officers to China could help Chinese parents and students better understand the schooling philosophy of overseas universities. In addition, its related education exhibitions and briefing sessions are free and open to the public.



"Vision Overseas has strict rules on its employees' operation, staff training and professional integrity and it will seriously punish employees who write application essays for their student clients and falsify their high school transcripts," the company said.



Recent years saw a soaring number of Chinese students apply for US colleges. In the US, the number of students from China was 328,547 in 2015, representing 31.5 percent of international students in US colleges, media reports said in November.



The number of Vision Overseas' Chinese student clients applying for US colleges increased 123 percent, compared with 2013, according to a report released by New Oriental in May.



New Oriental is a leading education service provider in China and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2006.



The company's operating income increased by 17.5 percent year-on-year to $152.6 million for its first fiscal quarter of 2017 ended in August 31.



New Oriental's shares closed down 14.27 percent at $42 on Friday.



Global Times

