Students hold banners saying, "I rule my gaokao with fighting spirit," in a pep rally at Hengshui No 2 Middle School in North China's Hebei province, Feb 26, 2014. [Photo/icpress.cn]

As this year's college enrollment season approaches, sdaxue.com, a website that provides information on colleges, has released a list of 210 unaccredited domestic colleges that have managed to lure students, who get low scores in the national college entrance exam but still crave university education, to "register" and pay their "tuition fees" to receive fraudulent certificates after "graduation". About 83 of them are in Beijing. Comments:

Since it is not from the education authorities, the list released by sdaxue.com will have no legal impact on those false universities. An official blacklist of unauthorized colleges is needed by all high school graduates and their parents to better protect them from being cheated. The diploma mills will no longer be in demand so long as all stay alert to them.

Beijing News, May 19

The unaccredited universities should be shut down by law for the credibility and reputation of China's higher education system. Officials who enable the illegal existence of such universities must be held responsible.

dahe.cn, May 19

Indeed, the list of 210 unaccredited universities is an important clue for anyone concerned with the country's university education. However, some local officials in charge may still turn a blind eye to them because it is not directly presented to them as an administrative order, or their own interests are secretly intertwined with the false colleges.

Chongqing Morning Post, May 19