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New service to further clamp down on UKHE fraud

The UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will target fake university websites in its latest efforts to clamp down on higher education fraud.

The government has partnered with Prospects to further investigate bogus institutions

HEDD has seen over 61,000 enquiries and identified 190 bogus institutions

The government has partnered with Prospects, a website for graduate advice and job opportunities, to enforce its Higher Education Degree Datacheck to identify bogus providers online.

“What we need to do is to get to the people behind the bogus institutions and get them prosecuted”

Prospects will investigate fraudulent providers alongside enforcement bodies who will close them down and prosecute those involved.

HEDD was developed by Prospects in 2011 as a degree verification service. It flags up bogus higher education institutions and lists them on its database.

Now with government backing, it can investigate who owns the websites and where they are hosted, liaise with Trading Standards and other enforcement bodies, including those overseas, to prosecute and force closure.

Jayne Rowley, business services director at Prospects, emphasised the importance of giving teeth to HEDD.

“The issue is if you flag somebody as a fake provider, what they do is they take the website down and then they pop up again after a different name,” she told The PIE News.

“So you’re not actually getting rid of the problem, just moving the problem along. What we need to do is to get to the people behind the bogus institutions and get them prosecuted and put them out of business.”

The campaign was announced by Jo Johnson, the minister for universities and sciences, in his speech at the Going Global conference last week.

“We will take all steps necessary to protect international students from rogue providers and dodgy operators,” he told the multinational delegation.

“Such changes are in the interests of all legitimate providers because they protect the reputation of the UK as a provider of high-quality education.”

“Hopefully people will be prosecuted and will realise it’s not an easy scamit’s not something you can do and get away with”

In the last four years, HEDD has seen over 61,000 enquiries processed through the system. It has also identified 190 bogus institutions.

Rowley believes the initiative will also act as a deterrent of future fraud in the sector.

“Hopefully people will be prosecuted and will realise it’s not an easy scam, it’s not something you can do and get away with,” she said.

HEDD is also rolling out other services to encourage stakeholders to report bogus providers. A telephone line was set up last month for people to report any fraudulent concerns that they have about particular institutions.

Later this month, advice will be provided for employers about what they can do if they encounter any degree fraud.

In July, the government will also give UK higher education providers a toolkit in order to help them if they are targeted by fake counterparts.

It will include information about how to report the fraud to Trading Standards, legal advice, and how HEDD could potentially help.

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