Prospects Hedd Degree Fraud Best Practice
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Slides presented by Chris Rea to the institutions present at the Prospects Hedd Degree Fraud Best Practice event, May 2018.
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Prospects Hedd Degree Fraud Best Practice
- 1. Hedd and Degree Fraud
- 2. Lies and statistics • 80% of CVs contain discrepancies • 57% of CVs have discrepancies in education claims • 44% of the discrepancies in education claims were at degree level or above • 7% of candidates falsify their grades at degree level and above • Only 25% of students and graduates know it’s illegal to lie about qualifications Risk Advisory Group 2017
- 3. Lies and statistics • 66% of employers ask to see a degree certificate • 76% of these employers assume they are legitimate and don’t check with the awarding body • 32% of these employers accept copies rather than original documents • Less than 20% of all employers make the check Hedd 2017
- 4. Lies and statistics • 40% of companies spent more than £10,000 in the last three years rehiring after employing someone who had lied about their qualifications • 9% spent more than £40,000 • Almost half said they did not always check candidates’ qualifications AXELOS 2016
- 5. Lies and statistics Data gathered by the UK’s Office for National Statistics reveal that, in the last three years, of 138,000 HR managers and directors in the UK 14% have dealt with at least five instances of employees not holding the certifications they claimed – the equivalent of about 100,000 job applicants. That number could be even higher if more employers made checks.
- 6. DfE degree fraud reporting service • Investigate and shut down bogus providers • Collaborate with enforcement authorities • Raise awareness of degree fraud – Universities – Employers – Students and graduates • Encourage employers to make more checks
- 7. DfE degree fraud reporting service – Entering its fourth year – 270+ bogus providers investigated – 240 bogus institutions now listed on Hedd – 67 websites shut down – Ebay and Amazon commitment to ban listings – Naming and Shaming on the Hedd blog – Network of enforcement contacts – Toolkits for employers and universities published – Advice for students published
- 20. 1,068 final-year students surveyed by Prospects: 69% plan to include their degree certificate on a photo. 24% will video their achievement. 71% plan to share their content on social media, with Facebook and Instagram favoured channels. Female students were much more likely to want to take a selfie (73%) and share it (74%) than their male equivalents – 58% and 60% respectively.
- 21. Advice for HE providers • Types of degree fraud • Case studies • Recommendations for universities • What action can be taken • Who can help • Templates
- 22. Advice for HE providers • Have a published policy on degree fraud: – Legal and compliance team – Registry – Admissions and HR – Brand managers • Things to cover: – Recruitment and Admissions – Action against individuals and former students – Action against websites
- 23. Advice for HE providers • Monitor your university brand online – including images • Don’t include certificate or transcript images in your online shop • Take action for trade mark or copyright breaches • Include information in the student handbook or on registration about the fraud policy and the action you would take • Issue guidance to graduates with printed certificates • Keep records of fraud cases • Share false documents and fraud evidence
- 24. Advice for HR and admissions • Notify applicants that you verify qualifications • Include a verification consent form in the application process • Only accept original certificates • Check certificates with the issuing institution • Don’t be misled by official-looking stamps - Notaries don’t verify authenticity • Check the university on HEDD.ac.uk or country equivalent • Share information on fraud – tell applicants you do that
Editor's Notes
- Risk Advisory Group Research analysed 5,000 CVs 2017. The report is available at www.riskadvisory.com/campaigns/cv-lies-2017.php The last point is important – lying on your CV could end you up in jail. Not necessarily the stuff about being an enthusiastic white water rafter or amateur lepidopterist but certainly inflating your degree grade, making up a job, giving yourself an important-sounding job title. We work with university careers services to raise awareness among students about the risks of lying on a CV. The CIFAS resource ‘Don’t finish your career before it starts’ is useful.
- According to Hedd, third of employers are still taking CVs at face value and don’t request degree certificates from job applicants. Of those who request certificates, 76% assume they are legitimate and don’t verify them with the issuing university and 32% accept copies rather than original documents. So less than 20% verify applicants’ credentials.
- The potential consequence s for employers are serious and can be measured financially. According to an AXELOS study, 40% of companies had spent more than £10,000 in the last three years rehiring staff after employing someone who wasn’t properly qualified
- The Department for Education (BIS, as it was at the time) and HECSU Prospects launched a new service in June 2015 to reduce higher education fraud in the UK. Jo Johnson, Universities and Science Minister announced the service at the Going Global conference. The service was commissioned by the government 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. Bogus providers are targeted by HEDD. Perpetrators found to be masquerading online as genuine with degree-awarding powers are added to the database of bogus institutions. HEDD investigates who owns the websites and where they are hosted, liaises with Trading Standards and other enforcement bodies, including those overseas to prosecute and force closure.
- Originally reported by the real Robert Gordon University, this is a copycat site. The website is near identical, using the same branding, logos, and colour scheme. It even uses photos of the actual campus on the site. The real website for Robert Gordon University is www.rgu.ac.uk , whereas the fake is www.rgua.org.uk. The site was created to verify fake Robert Gordon University degree certificates – there would most likely be a URL quoted on the certificate for the verifier to follow. The site was in breach of several laws including Trade Marks Act 1994, Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981. We acted in tandem with Robert Gordon, sending a cease and desist letter to rgua.org.uk, reporting them to Action Fraud (NFIB), reporting them to Trading Standards, and reporting them to the website provider. The website was confirmed as closed just a month later.
- We were originally approached by Newcastle directly, first by phone and then by email, by the Head of Digital Experience, Kirsten Edmonson. They reported “a new website that is fraudulently passing itself off as Newcastle University to attract students, collect their personal information and course fees.”. One course was advertised with fees of $8,400 per year. This website, without permission: offered UK HE qualifications; used the name, colours and branding of Newcastle University; used the protected term ‘university’ in its name. This was clearly in breach of several counts of fraud and the real Newcastle University acted immediately. There has been at least one victim, reported by the university. The site has been confirmed as down, by the NFIB and GoDaddy, as of 29 August 2017.
- Stafford University claimed to be a UK university that offered a range of course sat undergraduate and postgraduate level. It also claimed to offer extensive on-campus programs at Staffordshire University. This made the bogus institution appear legitimate due to their supposed partnership with a recognised body. The address led to a small office block in a built-up area in London. The Degree Fraud project reported the website to its host, GoDaddy and added it to the Hedd database. The website was shut down on 20/09/2018 and as of 25/05/2018, it is not in operation anymore.
- Canterbury Christchurch reported that they receive a high number of verification requests from ‘graduates’ of the bogus institution. They confirmed that Canterbury University was fined in 2012 in the US for setting up degree mills. It was forced to pay $22.7 million and it was believed that over 2000,000 fake degree certificates were sold in the US alone. The case was reported to Trading Standards, NFIB and added to the Hedd database. Although the website closed on 16/07/2016, it reopened again two weeks later. However, it closed again on 20/10/2016 and as of 25/05/2018, it has ceased to exist.
- Not the ivy-clad, mullion-windowed establishment the certificate promised.
- This is not to be confused with the real University of Surrey. Some bogus providers emulate genuine UK HE providers by setting up copycat websites using a real university’s name, lifting information or images from the genuine site. They generate revenues from enrolment fees or premium phone lines by duping applicants who believe it’s the genuine university, but also allowing fraudsters to gain plausible, but fictitious credentials. It’s a pretty plausible website – although the quality of the English is really poor.
- They take pains to stress that they are not affiliated to the (real) University of Surrey. The fraudsters are also aware that that employers who are doing their job properly will want to verify a candidates’ degree credentials so they helpfully provide a verification function. The website claimed to offer a range of qualifications (mainly postgraduate) with fees ranging from £1,250 to £7,000. The information on the site was directly copied from legitimate UK degree awarding providers, such as the University of Wales, Trinity St. David. It also included a certificate verification service. The SU site states that they are not connected to the University of Surrey (UofS). Their address listed leads to a residential area, 20 miles away from the ‘real’ UofS. The real Surrey were aware of the imposter. The site was added to the Hedd database as fraudulent, reported to NFIB and the website was closed down on 22nd February 2016.
- This was originally reported because of its misleading name. Although it uses the word ‘university’ in its title, which is a protected term under the Companies Act 2006, it does not claim to offer ‘degree certificates’ – it is in fact a beauty school that offers cosmetics courses. We contacted the provider and advised them of what they were in breach of and asked if they could change their name to ‘Aesthetics Uni’; unfortunately, ‘uni’ is not considered a sensitive word. The website and company changed their name and the case was closed. This shows that not all the work that Hedd does is about chasing fraudulent wrongdoers, sometimes it’s also about informing everyday businesses.
- Boss Babes University was reported by a concerned party who believed that the name could be misleading. Upon further investigation, however, the company appeared to be a beauty school based in Liverpool. It did not claim to offer UK degree certificates. Nevertheless, its company name included a sensitive word and was, thus, in breach of the Companies Act 2006. The Degree Fraud Project emailed the company and informed it about its use of a sensitive word. The company changed its name to ‘Boss Babes Uni’ which does not breach legislation. Nevertheless, this case and the Aesthetics University case highlighted a loophole that bogus institutions could use to avoid prosecution.
- Last summer large numbers of photo tweets of graduates appeared posing with their degree certificates at ceremonies around the UK. To celebrate their graduates’ successes, these were frequently and innocently re-tweeted by their universities. Once published and added to the eternal gallery of Google images these photos give anyone looking to make fake degree certificates the current designs for 2017, which they can then duplicate – logo, crest, signatory, stamps, holograms and forms of words. We contacted every university’s social media team to advise them not to include certificates in their photo tweets and to advise their students not to do so either. These sites rely on having access to real certificates in order for their fakes to pass muster with recruiters. None of us would upload a copy of our passport or driving licence, nor give out our bank details. We should regard our degree certificates as precious and private information to be guarded
- As part of the project for BIS we have been tasked with developing a ‘toolkit’ for universities to help protect them from degree fraud. Over the summer we conducted research with 12 universities to collect examples of best practice and case studies to share with colleagues in the sector. It proved much tougher than we thought. We spoke to staff in registries, legal departments and marketing about their university policies and only a couple said there was a policy in place but couldn’t direct us to any published information and didn’t know what that policy was. Things to cover: Former Students – what action would you take in the case of students inflating grades, changing subjects, tampering with certificates, producing fake letters of verification, did not complete? Would you revoke degrees, suspend for a year, reduce grades. Would you prosecute? Other individuals – no connection with the university Actions against websites – copyright and trademark infringements Information sharing – share with HEDD, with network colleagues, share with national databases – ‘Information will be shared with third parties for the purposes of fraud prevention and law enforcement’
- As part of the project for DfE we have been tasked with developing a ‘toolkit’ for universities to help protect them from degree fraud. Last summer we conducted research with 12 universities to collect examples of best practice and case studies to share with colleagues in the sector. It proved much tougher than we thought. We spoke to staff in registries, legal departments and marketing about their university policies and only a couple said there was a policy in place but couldn’t direct us to any published information and didn’t know what that policy was. Things to cover: Former Students – what action would you take in the case of students inflating grades, changing subjects, tampering with certificates, producing fake letters of verification, did not complete? Would you revoke degrees, suspend for a year, reduce grades. Would you prosecute? Other individuals – no connection with the university Actions against websites – copyright and trademark infringements Information sharing – share with HEDD, with network colleagues, share with national databases – ‘Information will be shared with third parties for the purposes of fraud prevention and law enforcement’
- For employers, for university admissions and HR teams: Notify applicants that they verify qualifications – if they refuse it could signal that 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. Let applicants know that information will be passed on - – ‘Information will be shared with third parties for the purposes of fraud prevention and law enforcement’.