A Shenzhen-based education company released a ranking list of China's colleges on June 10th, a day after the nationwide college entrance examination. The Guangzhou- based Guangzhou Daily carries a commentary arguing that private companies should be stopped from randomly ranking colleges.

The paper says that inaccurate information about college ranking would mislead high school graduates and their parents when they make choices among different universities. If an authoritative ranking list could be offered to test-takers and their parents, it would be a timely help for them. However, as there have already been over 100 lists of college rankings, they would find it difficult to figure out which one is reliable.

The paper goes on to say that the private ranking institutes are usually doing their work without supervision from a third party, therefore it would be hard to judge whether their rankings are scientific or fair. While colleges and education experts could ignore such rankings, high school graduates and their parents could be misled by the incorrect information and thus make wrong decisions.

The paper suggests that education authorities set up a committee to formulate evaluation standards and annually publish an authoritative ranking list. For one thing, it could benefit students by providing necessary information about different colleges, for another, it would also strike a blow on those unreliable private rankings.