China’s state broadcaster has aired a scathing report on consultants and vocational schools running “empty student status” services, which it said allow students to graduate without attending classes.
CCTV’s “Financial Investigation” program reported on Sunday that it found five companies in Zhengzhou, Wuhan, and Henan offering to help students enroll in and complete their desired course with a cash fee of 20,000 yuan, or $2,800.
According to the broadcaster, these consultants illegally registered students for three-year courses at vocational or technical schools. Such institutions typically offer high school-equivalent certificates for skilled labor and are the gateway for entering fields like IT or electronics.
Several consultancy staff spoke to CCTV on camera, saying that they would use the $2,800 as a “relationship fee” for the schools.
“You don’t need to be present, you don’t need to go to class,” a consultant said in one clip.
The broadcaster kept all of its interviewees anonymous, as is the norm for Chinese media when dealing with people who aren’t celebrities or politicians.
“We just need the student’s residency registration, their personal information, a photo with a blue background,” another consultant said. “Then, after paying the fee, we’ll sign a contract, and we’ll give you the school registration.”
Others said on camera that they could help their clients find schools with vacancies or establish ties with institutions chosen by the student.
China finds schools offering the same services
The broadcaster also published footage of staff from five schools in the same regions directly offering “empty student status.”
These schools, spread across the automotive, aviation, IT, and engineering industries, said on camera that “empty students” would only have to be present for one roll call per semester.
Several said they could arrange for the student to take entire semesters of medical leave. One school asked that the client clock in daily with a card, though they would not have to attend classes.
Another school’s staff said the student could record their attendance through a mobile app.
The institutions would typically limit “empty student” clients to a small proportion of an attending class, with one staff saying they would accept about three clients per class.
CCTV’s report is the latest of several to recently gain widespread attention on Chinese social media, becoming the top-most discussed post on Weibo, China’s version of X, on Monday.
China has, in the last few years, tried to crack down on “empty student” fraud, though the bulk of its attention has focused on students cheating on national exams.
In particular, the scam is most well-known as a way to circumvent a national law that restricts students to schools inside their registered region of residency.
Previous cases featured wealthy students who would “migrate” to less academically competitive regions using an “empty student status” service, allowing them to enroll in these new provinces without attending classes there.
However, they could take their national or college entrance exams in the easier region because they were registered on paper there.
Many Chinese youth and their families obsess over the results of these exams because they are largely seen as a major deciding factor in one’s future education and career.
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