A Chinese education association under the Ministry of Education has suspended the membership of Swiss international education company EF due to “recent public opinion.”

“EF is sorry to learn about the suspension,” a staff member from the company’s public relations department told media on Wednesday, a day after the announcement from the China Association for Non-Government Education. “However, this will not affect the company’s qualifications (as an education provider) and daily operations.”

The decision comes just over a month after seven English teachers working for EF in the eastern Chinese city of Xuzhou were detained after allegedly testing positive for drugs — a case that sparked heated discussion about the quality and character of foreign English teachers working in the country.

And in May, EF made headlines after several of its language students who thought they were signing contracts allowing them to pay for their courses in installments said they later learned that they had unknowingly consented to taking out loans via UMoney, Baidu’s online lending platform. The students further claimed that, when they tried to take advantage of EF’s money-back guarantee, they were denied refunds — and moreover, left on the hook to pay off loans for courses they would not complete. EF reportedly said at the time that the students had taken out the loans “voluntarily.” (Image: IC)