New Oriental Says Media Reports Could Mislead Readers About NOVO's Activities

(RTTNews) - New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc. (EDU), a provider of private educational services in China,responded to recent media reports referencing its small overseas study consulting division, New Oriental Vision Overseas Consultancy Co. or NOVO, as New Oriental believes these reports could mislead readers about NOVO's legitimate business activities and harm the reputation of New Oriental and NOVO.

New Oriental said it has been dedicated to promoting access to positive education opportunities since its founding in 1993. NOVO has been playing an important role in helping bridge the gap between Chinese and Western cultures and this has led to progress in internationalizing China's best young talent as well as fostering education-based global collaboration and partnership in various foreign markets.

New Oriental noted that it prides itself on its longstanding commitment to education and the high standards it has for itself as well as the students it assists with its programs. All of the Company's business operations, including those carried out by NOVO, are governed by robust policies and the Company has designed procedures to guard against any unendorsed behavior by employees. The company does not condone the kinds of behavior described in the media reports, and has in the past enforced disciplinary actions against those employees who breached the Company's policies and procedures.

On December 2, 2016, an article was published by Reuters disclosing that New Oriental has been accused of participating in college application fraud. According to the article, "[e]ight former and current New Oriental employees…told Reuters the firms have engaged in college application fraud, including writing application essays and teacher recommendations, and falsifying high school transcripts." The same day, Reuters published an update revealing that due to its earlier report detailing academic fraud allegations at New Oriental, the American International Recruitment Council ("AIRC") stated that it "will investigate the company in response to the report", and the AIRC's president-elect referred to the allegations as "highly concerning."