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A mainland woman who used a forged recommendation letter to secure admission to a doctoral program at the Education University of Hong Kong has been sentenced to 160 hours of community service.
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Li Zuer, 31, had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining services by deception and was sentenced at Fanling Magistrates’ Courts on Monday.
Magistrate Kenneth Chan Ping-chau said Li’s conduct had unfairly deprived another applicant of an admission opportunity and caused a long-term adverse impact. However, he opted for a community service order after taking into account her previous teaching record, clear criminal record and other mitigating factors.
The court accepted that Li had placed unrealistically high expectations on herself and committed the offense during a lapse in judgment after seeking assistance from an education agency.
The court earlier heard that Li graduated with a master’s degree from EdUHK in 2019 and had unsuccessfully applied for the university’s doctoral program every year since 2021.
In 2024, she submitted an online application accompanied by a forged recommendation letter purportedly signed by former associate professor Ho Wai-yip. She was subsequently admitted and began the program in September 2025.
The deception came to light after university staff contacted Ho, who confirmed that he had not issued the recommendation letter submitted by Li.
Li told investigators that she had met Ho while studying for her master’s degree and had asked him for a reference in 2022. She claimed Ho told her she could reuse a recommendation letter he had written for her in 2021.
She admitted using information from the earlier letter as the basis for the forged document and signing Ho’s name herself before submitting it with her application.
