This time in the UK
A recent investigation in the UK has found that thousands of nationals bought fake degrees from a multi-million-pound "diploma mill" in Pakistan. An investigation by the BBC Radio programme 'File on Four’ broadcast on 16 January alleged that Axact, which claims to be the “world’s largest IT company”, operates a network of hundreds of fake online universities run by agents from a Karachi call centre. More than 3,000 fake qualifications were reportedly sold to UK-based buyers in 2013 and 2014, including master’s degrees, doctorates and PhDs. The report states that Axact sold more than 215,000 fake qualifications globally, through approximately 350 fictitious high schools and universities, making $51 million (approximately R618 million), in the year 2015 alone.
Diploma mills, defined by Google as institutions or organisations that grant large numbers of educational degrees based on inadequate or inferior education and assessment of the recipients. The academic community differentiates between two types of diploma mills: those that simply sell degrees for cash, in which case, both the diploma mill and the recipient know that the degree is not legitimate; and those that pretend to be real institutions, which can sometimes leave students unaware that their degrees and certificates are worthless
Meanwhile, in the US, a special 2004 report on the college diploma mill industry, the Chronicle of Higher Education in the US estimated that the market for fake degrees stood at about half a billion dollars. People with fake degrees were also found to have held positions as high as top security clearance nuclear scientists. The government list included doctors, lawyers and engineers.
The majority of Internet degree mills are "accredited." The problem is that they are accredited by bogus agencies that they themselves have created. These bogus accrediting agencies—also known as accreditation mills—typically have prestigious sounding names. They often claim to be “worldwide” or “international” agencies and therefore superior to any single agency. To avoid falling into the trap of recruiting people with worthless qualifications, organisations have to do their due diligence. That means not only checking that the institutions listed on a candidate’s CV are accredited but also that they are accredited by an official government accreditation agency in the country where the institution is situated. It is also important to note that the best online schools will have amassed enough alumni performance data to distinguish themselves from diploma mills.
