With more universities and offices requiring English qualifications from graduates, students are turning to hiring other people to sit their English exams.

HCM City University of Agriculture and Forestry

The police in HCM City's Thu Duc District are investigating a case in which 34 students at the HCM City University of Agriculture and Forestry hired impersonators for their English exams. Last year, 10 impersonators were uncovered.

Ton Duc Thang University has also discovered 24 impersonators and asked the police to investigate the case. After being questioned, several people admitted that they were hired replacements for VND800,000 (USD36). The students were suspended for a year.

While the main reason for hiring impersonators is the fact that some students just are not good at foreign languages, some students have allegedly have hired impersonators as they have part time jobs so they cannot find time to study properly, while others have family business or just cannot be bothered to sit the exams.

Meanwhile, universities which require students take TOEFL, TOEIC or IELTS tests as English graduation exams have received a number of fake certificates.

The Educational Testing Service in HCM City said cheating in exams and faking certificates was having a negative affect on their reputation so anyone who using fake certificates would be banned from attending any of their administered tests in the Asia-Pacific region for three years.

Le Bao Lam, headmaster of HCM City Open University, said they should change the way of conducting graduation exams and the final results should be based on the results in the classes, not just a single exam.