A faculty member from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics remained in police custody Sunday after being charged with trying to extort 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) from the parent of a young woman who hopes to enter the institute.

China Central Television reported that the parent, surnamed Li, from southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said three university faculty members had tried to obtain the money from him although his daughter had secured a high enough entrance exam mark to enter the university.

Two of the university personnel involved, Pang Hongbing and Gao Feng, were summoned on Wednesday by police in Nanning to answer questions. They have since been released.

Police were unavailable for comment on Sunday.

The third faculty member, Liu Fangping, remains in police custody in Nanning, the capital city of the autonomous region.

Li's daughter achieved a score of 750 in the national university entrance examination in June. Sources with the Guangxi education examinations authority said she ranked 40th among those applying for admission to the Beijing-based university. The university planned to admit 69 students from Guangxi.

"So I believed there would be no problem in getting my child enrolled at the university," Li said.

But in July, Li was approached by people from the university who said that unless he paid 100,000 yuan, his daughter would not be admitted.

After Li promised to pay the money, he was told the university had enrolled his daughter. But when Li reported the case to police and refused to hand over the money, his daughter failed to receive the notice of her acceptance to the university.

University President Li Wei made a public apology over the weekend for the scandal, which "has done great harm to the reputation of the university and student admissions."

"I hope the scandal in Guangxi is an isolated one in nationwide student admission," Li told the Beijing News.

The university and various government offices have established a joint investigation team to look into the issue.

Any moneys that university personnel extorted from students will be returned and those students rejected for not paying will be sent their admission notices, Li pledged.

The results of the investigation are to be made public in the near future.

(China Daily August 16, 2004)