Selection Degree fraud
Faking It
Since the Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD) was launched three years ago, there is a growing and unprecedented amount of data available on degree fraud. Jayne Rowley, Business Services Director at Prospects runs the service on behalf of the government. She shares some of the emerging trends, and explains why it’s vital that employers properly check candidate qualifications.
H In an earlier survey we
found 31% graduates knew someone who had lied about their qualifications…
EDD was instigated to tackle the growing problem of degree fraud
by providing a secure online service that would make validating higher education qualifications quicker and easier. We’ve since fulfilled around 55,000 requests, of which 5% have been classified as ‘unverified’ – that’s more than 2,700 people submitting incorrect information to would-be employers. And that’s only those who we know of.
Whether those candidates
were deliberately out to deceive or simply had made a mistake
is harder to prove. Although if the certificate they provided is fake or tampered with, it’s indisputable. In an earlier survey we found 31% of graduates knew someone who had lied about their qualifications, which they put down to a competitive jobs market.
From HEDD data we know that the three most common misdemeanours are grade inflation, so someone claiming a 2:1 when they have a 2:2, subject studied or qualification - claiming a Masters when they have a Bachelor’s degree.
Degree fraud in practice High profile cases make headlines. Subject was the issue for Yahoo chief, Scott Thompson, who claimed a Bachelor’s degree in ‘computer science and accounting’ on his CV. He had only achieved the accounting degree and subsequently resigned.
Scott had previously held an executive position at Paypal, and here lies another issue. Just a fifth of our checks are on those who graduated in the 1990s or earlier. Someone could build a career based on a 20 year-old lie, which is repeatedly overlooked as new employers assume academic checks were made previously.
The escalating number of degree mills is exacerbating the situation, with thousands of fake degree certificates in circulation. In the first quarter of 2015 we added 42 more bogus institutions to HEDD, totalling 185, with every month bringing more to our attention.
Employer impact While many businesses invest in sophisticated application tracking, assessment centres and psychometric testing, few check qualifications with the institution, so most degree fraud goes undetected. From a survey of 100 employers, a third took CVs at face value without requesting degree certificates. Of those who did, 76% assumed they were legitimate and 32% accepted copies.
We have unearthed some clever, and some not so clever, tricks to forge certificates; from falsified names - the University of ‘Wolverhamton’ (spot the absent ‘p’) and Manchester University (the ‘University of Manchester’ is genuine) – to cut and pasted grades or signatures, which are scanned and often countersigned by notaries attesting to having checked the original. Bear in
mind it’s as easy to fake a notary stamp as it is to fake a signature or seal.
Many of us want to believe that people are telling the truth, so we place our trust in references, applications and interviews. But some people are unscrupulous and looking to take advantage. If someone is lying about their qualifications we have to question their overall integrity as a potential colleague.
What’s being done? Awareness of the risks of fraud is increasing and employers are becoming more vigilant. In March 2014, we processed 2023 enquiries, for the same period this year we handled 2315 checks, marking a 14% increase.
How to protect your business from degree fraud:
• Notify applicants that you verify qualifications - if they refuse it could signal something is off-kilter
• Only accept original (not photocopied) degree certificates
• Check certificates with the issuing institution, via HEDD if they are members
• Don’t get misled by official-looking stamps and remember a notary will only confirm sight of an original document, not whether it’s genuine.
• Check the university on
hedd.ac.uk, which lists every legitimate UK institution - if it’s not listed there’s a good chance it’s fake n
www.agr.org.uk | Graduate Recruiter 31
For more information visit
hedd.ac.uk
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