Among the 229,300 Chinese who went overseas to study in 2009, about 92% were self-funded and the rest went on national scholarships or were funded by companies and organizations.
The Ministry of Education is warning against the traps and risks of the overseas study market, as in the past, thousands of students have found themselves cheated. It established a website, http://www.jsj.edu.cn, in 2003 to help regulate overseas study and continues to monitor the market.
So far it has released a total of 47 "overseas study-related warnings" and case studies.
Some overseas study agencies offered false school information and misled students. They took dishonest measures to boast about overseas language training schools as a necessary gateway to enter universities.
Some education institutions, which were not entitled to issue academic degrees, said they were branches of certain universities sand could issue MBA degrees. They did this in order to mislead and cheat consumers.
MOE pointed out that overseas education agencies generally charge students intermediary fees and overseas service fees. The former is clearly priced, but the latter is really a tricky one. Some agencies chose not to tell the students where service fees would be spent.
English.Xinhuanet.com states that MOE reminds students that applying for preparatory courses is totally different from applying for admission into a regular university. Overseas preparatory courses are very complicated and taking preparatory courses does not mean you can enter a university without taking examinations.