China's Ministry of Education has released a list showing all the country's 2,000 plus accredited institutions of higher learning. The move is meant to inform the parents of more than nine million students who started receiving their 'Gaokao' examination results on Tuesday about pseudo universities running diploma programs.

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China Daily reports that out of the 2,845 school accredited by the Ministry of Education, 292 colleges offer life-long learning and 477 of them are private, while seven are a jointly being operated by both Chinese and foreign universities.

According to a list combined by a Jiangxi province based university resources website, there are about 210 unauthorized institutions of higher learning in China. These 'universities' operate in all 25 of the country's provinces.

These institutions of higher learning are not permitted to operate or recognized by China's official Private College Student Information Public Platform. Experts say many of them adopt names and logos similar to those of accredited and well-known Chinese universities. In a bid to give an air of authenticity to their unauthorized universities, fraudsters also use names that include 'China' and 'Beijing.' At least 39 of these institutions reportedly include the word 'Beijing' in the names.

They reportedly provide online registration and enrollment with websites built in a similar fashion to those of well known universities. Women of China reports that many of these dubious institutions copy photos and website information from accredited universities to their website, including the write-ups for introductions, admission requirements, majors, departments and also career plans.

According to the Economic Observer, a picture of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies' gate was copied and reused several times by these bogus universities.

In 2013, Mr. Wang Zhiwei, a C.E.O of an authorized university called Beijing International Finance Academy, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of fraudulently acquiring 36 million yuan ($5.8 million) from over 600 students.

There are several reasons why these pseudo universities offering diploma certificates thrive despite efforts by the government to curb them as they cripple the society by duping millions from students.

According to IBTimes, many educators and students alike have criticized the 'Gaokao' for being too difficult and falling to prepare the Chinese work force for modern challenges. As a result many students fail the national university entrance examination and seek admission into these fake professional universities that will accept readily them.

Although the Gaokao has not been seen as a requirement for international admission in the past, a student portal based in London announced on Monday that several European and American universities have started accepting the Gaokao.

TagsChina Fake Universities, China Ministry of Education Fake Universities List