Hong Kong Jails Student For Hiring Impersonator To Take TOEFL Test Abroad

A mainland Chinese student has been sentenced to three months in prison in Hong Kong after she paid an impostor to sit an English language test on her behalf and submitted the result to meet university graduation rules, according to South China Morning Post.

Tuen Mun Court ruled on Monday that a non-custodial sentence would not be appropriate for Huang Xinyi, 22, after a probation officer said she showed "distorted values" and a lack of respect for academic honesty.

Magistrate David Chum Yau-fong said a jail term was needed to deter similar offences, noting a rise in cases involving fake academic credentials. He said universities were being forced to spend time and resources verifying results because some students tried to deceive their institutions, which was unfair to others, as per SCMP.

Huang, from Fujian province, admitted submitting a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) certificate to Lingnan University in May 2024, even though she did not take the test herself. She paid US$300 for the result.

She was studying for a bachelor's degree in public administration and smart governance, which requires a minimum TOEFL score of 87 or an IELTS score of 6.5 to graduate. Huang told police she had failed several English tests before and believed it would be easier to obtain a higher score in Cambodia.

On the day of the exam, she claimed she felt unwell and hired a fraudster outside the test centre to take the exam for her. When questioned by the university, she initially denied cheating.

Huang later pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain services by deception. The magistrate reduced her sentence from five months to three months due to her guilty plea and cooperation.