The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and graduate careers expert, Prospects have launched a new service to reduce higher education fraud in England.
The service has been commissioned by BIS to proactively address issues concerning bogus institutions and the misuse of the word ‘university’ as well as to tackle the related area of degree fraud. It aims to reduce the burgeoning number of unaccredited institutions by increasing prosecutions through investigation and awareness-raising. Bogus providers will be targeted by Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD), Prospects’ degree verification service. Perpetrators found to be masquerading online as genuine with degree-awarding powers will be added to the database of bogus institutions. HEDD will investigate who owns the websites and where they are hosted, liaise with Trading Standards and other enforcement bodies, including those overseas, to prosecute and force closure. A HEDD fraudline (0845 077 1968) has been set up for advice or to report dubious organisations.
From July a toolkit will be available to support genuine UK HE providers who find themselves victims of copycat websites. An awareness campaign will provide clearer guidance on the surrounding issues. Jo Johnson, Universities and Science Minister announcing the project at the Going Global 2015 Conference in London said: “We have appointed Prospects to help us expose unscrupulous organisations and remove misleading websites wherever they make an appearance. Such action is in the interests of all legitimate providers and genuine students because it will help protect the reputation of the UK as a provider of high-quality education.”
HEDD has already identified 190 bogus institutions, many of which have derived from fake degree certificates HEDD has checked out on behalf of employers. As well as falsified names such as the ‘University of Wolverhamton’ (spot the absent ‘p’) and Manchester University (University of Manchester is genuine), false grades and signatures have been cut and pasted onto certificates, which are then scanned and passed off as authentic. Copies of fake certificates can often be countersigned by notaries or solicitors attesting to having viewed the original certificate, not realising that the ‘original’ isn’t genuine. Since HEDD launched four years ago, awareness of the risks of degree fraud is increasing and employers are becoming more vigilant. In March 2014 HEDD processed 2023 enquiries, for the same period this year it handled 2315 checks, marking a 14% increase.
Jayne Rowley, Business Services Director who runs HEDD at Prospects said: “Degree fraud is a serious problem; in the first quarter of this year alone we added 42 bogus institutions to the database and there are thousands of fake degree certificates in circulation. While HEDD has made it easier to verify whether an institution is genuine, the extent of the service ended there. We now have the structure in place to investigate and report fake university providers to the relevant authorities”.
“It’s easy to see why people would be tricked into thinking they could get a genuine degree from these websites. On the surface they appear credible; they use the word ‘university’ in their title and many imitate legitimate sites with all of the information you’d expect from study guides to lecturers’ words of welcome and student testimonials. Innocent applicants can be duped out of thousands of pounds to end up with a worthless piece of parchment with a fancy seal. From our investigations we’ve also found that what have been described as ‘campuses’ are actually just mailing addresses or virtual offices and ‘course work’ can amount to no more than listing your skills based on life experience or specifying the degree you want, for as little as £30. If you are offered a degree for little effort and a minimal fee, you have to question its legitimacy.”
Jayne adds:“We are also working with the relevant organisations in other countries and have already started to forge relationships with our equivalents in China, the US, Australia, Sweden, South Africa and the Netherlands. This is a positive step towards better protecting the reputation of our world-class higher education system and the investment made by genuine graduates.”
