University of Hong Kong rejects top scorer

By Hou Lei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-03 19:11

He Chuanyang, the top-scoring student from Chongqing who lied about his ethnic background was refused admission to the University of Hong Kong, according to a report.

He scored 659 points in the national college entrance examination making him become one of the "Zhuangyuan", or top scorers, in the municipality. It came out that he lied about his ethnicity to receive 20 additional points on the test.

He was earlier turned down by Peking University, which said the denial was in line with Ministry of Education rules.

A director at the university said that He's English competency wasn't good enough for HKU standards.

"According to his performance in the interview, He Chuanyang is on the verge of meeting our enrollment standard. After a discussion, we decided to reject his application," said the director.

"The cheating on his ethnic identity carried weight on the denial of his application, but that was not the main reason," said the director.

HKU said earlier reports that HKU offered an invitation to the top scorer were incorrect.

He Chuanyang's father, He Yeda, was the director of Wushan county's admission office in Chongqing. The father is accused of abusing his power to change his son's ethnic identity three years ago.

He Yeda said he feels regret for the wrongdoing when interviewed by media last week and he was sacked on June 29.