Once upon a time employers took foreign job applicants at their word, that they had graduated from an accredited university and were educated in the disciplines required for the job. No more. First came the realization that many employment candidates were flat out lying about their degrees and, later, that others were claiming degrees from what is commonly referred to as diploma mills. Diplomas are bogus or unaccredited schools, usually online fronts where the alleged student obtains a degree for “live experience,” or some other ridiculous claim of legitimacy. Small wonder it became necessary to conduct international education verification on all job applicants.
Now diploma mills are on the rise again, in China. According to AsiaOne…”Some 210 of these schools – with names like Capital University of Finance and Economics and Beijing Foreign Trade Institute – were recently exposed after higher education firm sdaxue.com published a list of fake schools on its website.
This is 60 more than the year before.
These pseudo universities, almost half of which are in the capital Beijing, are not authorised by the Education Ministry and issue degrees that are not recognised by many employers. Many also cheat students by having them pay tuition and various fees online and then going silent on them.”
Small wonder education verification has become an essential background check.
