Why verifying the qualifications of students matters
“Verifying students’ qualifications has become a major requirement but it doesn’t need to be a major hurdle.”
If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, writes Abdel Abu-Qoura of Qualification Check, it’s that no matter how advanced and evolved our lives might be – there are fundamental components of life which are at its core. Think about health, sanitation and security. Security – whether it’s as an employee or an employer, student or a university – means personal stability but also safeguarding a family or an organisation. It’s an element of life and business which has always existed and always will.
As the nature of the educational world changes, and student recruitment and application processes transition, security needs to remain intact. Universities need to be confident about who they’re accepting as students and verification is the best way to do that.
Verifying students’ qualifications has become a major requirement but it doesn’t need to be a major hurdle. Indeed, verification should be seen as helpful rather than a hindrance to the application process. It’s a valuable tool in empowering organisations to assess the fundamentals of a candidate, gaining insights into their honesty and integrity before accepting them.
An overview of verifications
Firstly, there are many types of checks to consider such as: education, identity, criminal, professional licenses and professional certificates. They are all important, but some will matter more to different types of organisations. Hundreds of thousands of candidates apply for jobs or university places every year with fabricated qualifications and falsified education histories.
It’s worth stating, however, that often the candidates themselves are duped into believing an institution is legitimate when they aren’t. The question of who’s to blame is less important – what matters is that your organisation has strong verification procedures in place to prevent it happening during your application process.
“56% of employers have detected employees with bogus credentials and embellished resumes – CareerBuilder, 2015”
Verification puts any questions to rest by validating records of candidates worldwide. Verification software and service providers must therefore have extensive global coverage in order to meet the demands of an increasingly international market. It doesn’t matter where your candidate is coming from or which institution they claim to have graduated from, you should be able to find it and verify it.
In education verification, fake and unapproved institutions are known as Diploma Mills. A quick search of “Diploma Mills” on Google will let you know how serious the situation is globally. They operate in a sophisticated way which makes them seem genuine and legitimate, often duping the people who enrol.
“More than 50,000 PhD’s are purchased from Diploma Mills every year – The New York Times, 2015”
3 key reasons why verification is important for universities
- Many students obtain their degrees from places far and wide. This means it’s tougher to assess the legitimacy of the claim. You need professional verification in place to investigate thoroughly.
- If you mistakenly accept students who turn out to be unqualified for their student visa it could risk your organisation losing its visa sponsors licence.
- If your graduates don’t have the correct qualifications to do the jobs they go on to be employed in – particularly those who go on to work in regulated industries such as healthcare – the social, legal and financial ramifications could be devastating.
To conclude, verification is evidently an increasingly important part of a university’s student recruitment and application process. The process should be performed properly, thoroughly and with expert assistance from a verification specialist with global coverage. Save your university time, money and reputation with high quality, reliable verification.
About the author: Abdel Abu-Qoura is the head of marketing at Qualification Check.
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