2005:25 R

Fake universities and bogus degrees? Sweden and the world

The term fake university is used here to refer to: An organisation or individual that issues or sells false or worthless qualifications without demanding any real study and whose operations are not subject to the supervision of any recognised authority or organisation.

Fake universities are often characterised by one or several of the following features:

• The institution either claims to be accredited by an unrecognised organisation or plays down the significance of accreditation.
• The name of the institution is remarkably similar to that of a genuine university.
• The institution often changes address.
• The name of the institution is invented or misleading.
• The institution lacks any physical address and can only be contacted by e-mail or fax.
• Enrolment requirements are minimal.
• The institution emphasises on its web-site that it is not a fake university.
• Information about fees refers to degree certificates and not tuition fees.
• Degrees are based purely on vocational experience.
• Degree requirements are minimal and degrees are awarded within a very brief period.
• Illustrations of the degree certificates are published on the institution´s web-site.
• The logotypes of recognised credit card companies are visible on the institution´s web-site.
• Degree documents can be pre-dated, or in other words a date can be given that is earlier than the date of issue.

It is estimated that the number of fake universities on the Internet has risen fourfold during the period 2000-2004, from 200 to 800. This international trend is reflected in the number of cases concerning fake universities submitted to the National Agency for Higher Education. Fake universities are now a global problem and they are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Sweden is now affected to a greater extent than before. There are bogus PhD´s at Swedish higher education institutions, students who apply on the basis of fake qualifications and individual who apply for posts using false degrees. The fake universities advertise in the international press, circulate information using spam and rank high on the hit-lists of search engines. They use the Internet to reach an international target group. They sell qualifications from Swedish higher education institutions, claiming that these institutions are members of their organisations.

The degrees can be supplemented by purchased certificates from “professors" and telephone services are offered to deal with any checks that may be made. It is easy to acquire false degree certificates from both fake and genuine universities. In addition, serious students can be fooled into buying expensive distance courses from fake universities or persuaded to buy degree certificates based on fake validation tests of informally acquired knowledge. Annual revenues from this kind of activity amount to billions of Swedish crowns.

Educational fraud affects higher education institutions, employees and employers. The National Agency for Higher Education is proposing a number of remedial measures, for instance that higher education institutions should pay greater consideration to the problem of fake universities and bogus certificates when enrolling students and appointing staff. The institutions should also consider printing certificates on secure paper types so that they are more difficult to forge.

This report describes the current situation from Sweden´s perspective and also the links to the international networks and how they operate.