Over the weekend one of the trending stories was the extent of fake academic qualifications in the country. This is regrettable as it tarnishes the reputation of the country. Our educational system is revered across the globe for producing top notch graduates who go on to excel in various fields.
The article published over the weekend lifts the lid on a flourishing industry of fake academic qualifications and our forum also discussed the prevalence of the problem. Indeed fake qualifications are being bought with a lot of unscrupulous people benefitting and getting away with it.
This writer once met someone with the same degree, same class but the man never attended the same institution. He was not part of the graduation ceremony either—so where did he get the qualification from?
The traditional approach of qualification verification included approaching universities which would task the registrar departments with verification in their IT systems but fraudsters are creating academic records by hacking the systems or colluding with the registrar departments. So this approach is no longer good enough as its now also prone to corruption.
One of our forum members shared an experience of an accountant who graduated from the University of Zimbabwe, went through articles and then obtained a suspicious MBA during a period when a local college was suspected of selling MBAs for as much as US$3000.
Wary of the tag of a suspicious MBA degree, he later enrolled for another MBA from Masters Degree in Corporate Governance from another local college. In official audit questionnaires, he would cover up for his earlier MBA by writing that he had acquired it from UZ. A bizarre arrangement of pursuing 2 masters degrees instead of pursuing professional accounting studies.
Those that acquire fraudulent qualifications always have a way out—acquiring more qualifications on top to bury down the fake ones. Some even go up to doctorate level and no one will question someone with a legitimately acquired doctorate whether they faked their undergraduate qualifications!
How to solve the problem
Colleges: Internal controls at registry departments should be strengthened and internal audit departments should play an active role in designing systems that minimise the risks of academic fraud. Are academic results databases safe? Do hard copies of graduation lists tally with what is recorded in the databases? Do external audits cover this area? What are the control procedures for verification of results?
Outsiders: The verification results you obtain from colleges could be fake! In future consider asking graduates names of fellow graduates and lecturers and then verify. Who are the lecturers who taught you? Who else was in your class?
The period at most risk is when the economy started facing challenges from 2003-present. Some have been known to fake professional qualifications but verification is usually easy especially for international bodies.
The academic fraudsters usually perform well as work with some being star performers but they are usually given away by lack of ethics especially making life tough for those who sweat for their academic credentials–they always feel threatened!
Even in-house, some may avoid applying for posts that require interviews and qualifications verifications and prefer growth by promotion. Human resources experts therefore need to regularly check qualifications even for those that would have been in the system for decades.
With our education in the spot light for the wrong reasons, it’s the duty of every stakeholder to flush out academic fraudsters.
