China’s new breed of academic paper mills promising a shortcut to grad school

The agency’s advertisement promised just the kind of “cutting-edge” expertise that Chris Wong was looking for.

The 21-year-old arts student was aiming to get into a graduate programme overseas after completing his studies in Australia, and the “commercial research” firm could give him a ticket in.

For nearly 20,000 yuan (US$2,800), the Beijing-based agency would guide Wong through a three-month independent online course of study in his field to produce a research paper that would be published in a leading journal.

The paper would help him stand out from the ever-growing crowd competing for limited places in graduate programmes in China and abroad.

“I thought it would be better to have some extra academic knowledge and a solid paper as a sample for future applications,” he said.

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Postgraduate degrees in China: golden tickets to employment or overrated qualifications?

Postgraduate degrees in China: golden tickets to employment or overrated qualifications?

The agency Wong signed up with is part of a rapidly expanding educational consulting sector that has cropped up to help ambitious students fine-tune their applications for graduate programmes or overseas schools.