Mainland Woman Forges Recommendation Letter to Gain Admission to EdUHK Doctoral Programme, Sentenced to 160 Hours of Community Service

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A 31-year-old mainland woman, who had repeatedly failed in her applications for doctoral programmes, forged a recommendation letter falsely claiming to have an academic recommendation from former EdUHK Associate Professor Ho Wai-yip, and was eventually admitted to a doctoral programme at EdUHK. The mainland woman earlier pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining services by deception and was sentenced today at Fanling Magistrates' Courts. Magistrate Chan Ping-chau said the defendant's actions had deprived another applicant of an opportunity, but considering her outstanding teaching performance in the past and that she had "momentarily lost her judgment" and was instigated by an intermediary, sentenced her to 160 hours of community service.

The defendant, Li Zu'er, earlier pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining education and teaching services for EdUHK's Doctor of Education programme by falsely representing to EdUHK staff between 30 November 2024 and 16 December 2025 that Ho Wai-yip was her academic referee.

According to the case details, the defendant graduated from EdUHK with a master's degree in 2019 and had applied for EdUHK's doctoral programme every year since 2021, but was unsuccessful each time. She submitted another application for EdUHK's doctoral programme online the year before last, uploading a recommendation letter claiming to have been written by staff member "Ho Wai-yip." The defendant was eventually admitted by EdUHK and began studying the programme in September last year.

EdUHK staff later confirmed that Ho had left his post in July 2021, and that he had been an associate professor before leaving. Staff contacted Ho, who confirmed that he had never issued the recommendation letter submitted by the defendant. In a cautioned video interview after her arrest, the defendant said she had met Ho while studying for her master's degree, and claimed that in 2022 she had asked Ho to write her a recommendation letter, and that Ho said she could use a recommendation letter he had written in 2021. The defendant admitted that she had used the information in the 2021 recommendation letter as a basis to forge the recommendation letter in question and forge the signature on it.