Foreign agents locked out (3)

Support for the measure

Unsurprisingly, domestic agencies are pleased with the news. They say that it will protect students from predatory behavior and facilitate supervision throughout China.

Hu's company is not an intermediary agency per se, it instead acts as an intermediary between potential students and the agencies by recommending reliable services. He told the Global Times that "a large number of unlicensed foreign agencies in China operate under the name of the enrollment office of a foreign university, which are even more deceptive, as it's often easier for agencies related to a university to win trust."

"Besides, some foreign chambers of commerce or cultural exchange associations also cheat their customers," said Zhang Weiyong, an overseas study consultant with the National Development and Reform Commission Training Center, who also used a Chinese idiom to describe the situation, by saying that these agencies were "hanging out a sheep's head but selling dog meat."

Zhang is also the chief technology officer of the American department at the Beijing Golden Orient International Educational & Cultural Exchange Centre, which essentially acts as an intermediary agency.

"Generally, those agencies offer two kinds of services: providing information on foreign universities and handling the student's application process," said Zhang, adding that the first service should be offered for free, while those who offer the second option should be properly licensed.

However, some subsidiaries of foreign agencies have managed to apply for licenses, by working with locals and having locals act as the legal representative. The Australia-based Dipont Education Management Group, which has subsidiaries in Chengdu, Changsha and Wuxi, has these outlets listed as licensed agencies by the Ministry of Education, despite the fact that the ministry specifies that only Chinese citizens can register for a license.