Yu Minhong, dubbed the godfather of overseas studies, plans to buy one or two colleges that will further expand his educational empire.

 

Yu, president of the Beijing-based New Oriental School (NOS), a popular English training school in China, became the country's richest teacher thanks to NOS's US$110 million IPO in New York on September 6. These funds will go to pay down the school's pre-existing debts.

 

NOS now has a network of 25 schools, and more than 110 learning centers employing over 1,700 teachers across China.

 

"NOS will continue to focus on English training only. The purchase (of the colleges) would, hopefully, allow us to issue educational certificates to our students in the future," Yu said.

 

The NOS's website claims over three million enrollments including 800,000 in 2005 alone. It trains Chinese students who want to go abroad by preparing them for English examinations such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

 

The school was sued in 2001 by US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) for publishing and selling ETS's test questions for non- English-speaking students. The fine was hefty for NOS as the Higher People's Court of Beijing ordered in 2005 that NOS pay US$450,000 to ETS in compensation.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2006)