“At that time I didn’t think it was a big deal, I didn’t know I was making history. But I am happy I proved that women can lead”
Every week over on The PIE News, we publish a PIE Chat with someone interesting, innovative or inspiring in international education. In honour of International Women’s Day, The PIE’s staff share which of the women we’ve interviewed have inspired us the most.
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“It is a very frightening time to be an American”
I was at this year’s annual NAFSA conference in Denver, where I spoke to people from all around the world about a wealth of topics, both industry-related and not. But sooner or later, every conversation seemed to end up at one of two destinations: Brexit or the upcoming US presidential election. And sooner or later, everyone had to answer the same questions: Do you think Donald Trump might actually win? What do people make of him in other countries? What might happen if Hillary Clinton becomes president? What would either mean for international education?
Here are some of the things people had to say about how the election outcome might impact the sector, and how the campaigns so far have been heard around the world:
Coverage of the UK’s vote to leave the EU in last month’s referendum has been extensive – including our own over at The PIE News of how Brexit might affect international education. Here we take a look at some of the headlines from across the EU and beyond, concerning how the events will affect student mobility and funding in different student markets.
Predictably, coverage within the EU focused largely on concerns over tuition fees for their own countries’ citizens studying in the UK.
“Simply stunned. our first priority should be to try to reassure the many EU students, academics and friends and work tirelessly to keep them”
In a referendum that saw the highest turnout in a national vote in nearly 25 years, the UK has chosen to leave the EU, with immediate dramatic consequences for the value of the pound sterling and a period of uncertainty for all industries. Here’s what #intled stakeholders had to say.
“International students spend most of their time outside the classroom. We can’t leave that experience to chance”
What are the challenges and what are universities doing to make sure they meet the needs of their overseas cohort? These were some of the questions asked at Universities UK’s conference on Enhancing the International Student Experience.
Missed the APAIE 2016 conference in Melbourne? Catch up on the highlights with our Storify timeline:
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“UK universities and colleges are in an uncomfortable position at the immigration front line. Due diligence has to be completed to demonstrate to the Home Office auditors that robust systems are in place”
As institutions work to tackle the problem fraud in student applications, Steve Miller of UK NARIC, the designated national agency responsible for providing information, advice and expert opinion on qualifications worldwide, shares some pointers on how to spot fake documents.
‘I didn’t know fraud was so common, so widespread’ – that’s the comment UK NARIC hears again and again from the university and college staff who attend its fraud workshops and seminars.
UK NARIC has been running its fraud training for over eight years – so we have trained a lot of staff from HE institutions. And in that time, we have had to develop the training year-on-year, because fraud has definitely become more common, and the fraudulent techniques adopted have become more elaborate.
The rise in numbers of international applications has increased the challenge for admissions staff – there are more applications to be sifted and checked, and from a greater variety of places, so staff have to learn and become familiar with an ever-wider array of qualification certificates and ID documents.
“Staff have to learn and become familiar with an ever-wider array of qualification certificates and ID documents”
UK universities and colleges are in an uncomfortable position at the immigration front line. Due diligence on applications has to be completed, and the evidence and audit trails all have to be there, to justify decisions taken and to demonstrate to the Home Office auditors that robust systems are in place.
Establishing with certainty the identity of an applicant is first base. Fake ID documents are a growing problem, but so too are genuine documents obtained illegally. Check across all documents supplied looking for discrepancies in the name and in age/date of birth. Any changes in name, eg due to marriage, should of course be supported by the necessary further documents – marriage certificates etc.
Be aware that there is a growing trade in fake EU passports – a popular choice as these give entry to any EU country without a visa. You will need to learn passport security features and check that documents have all of these. Some inexpensive equipment will help – most security features can be checked with a magnifying glass and a black light (UV-A lamp).
“Be aware that there is a growing trade in fake EU passports – a popular choice as these give entry to any EU country without a visa”
Social media can be a useful help to you. Check on a person’s ‘web imprint’. Do their Facebook posts match their claimed age and educational history? Do locations match – during their claimed years of study, have they been posting online from the university town you would expect? Facebook and other social media image uploads can also help with checking passport photos.
When it comes to qualifications, the first challenge is to check that the issuing institution is fully recognised. With such high numbers of applications coming from India and China, you may well encounter certificates from an unrecognised institution – there are many of them in these huge countries. Those of you who are subscriber members of UK NARIC will know that you can access full listings of recognised institutions in each country using our online data banks.
The next stage is to check if the certificate is genuine. If you are receiving a good number of international applications, you can and should build a library of certificates over time, to act as a live reference base against which incoming certificates can be compared.
Check certificates for all the obvious things first – all spelling should be correct; check all alignment – are type and graphics all properly centred and is everything straight? Check that dates are rendered correctly and that they make sense in terms of the qualification.
A more advanced level of checking would be to examine the signatures on the degree certificate – not only that the signature matches the genuine signature for the person named, but also that the Vice Chancellor or Principal named is correct in terms of the date of issue of the document.
“Print quality is not always a good guide to genuineness”
Print quality is not always a good guide to genuineness. Some recognised and well-established institutions in developing countries issue degree certificates that are not especially ‘well printed’. But type and graphical alignment will still be accurate.
UK NARIC would always advise that you do not rely on the degree certificate alone, but that you also obtain a transcript. This gives you further information to check against – module marks can be checked against the final degree classification; award titles should tally; course duration can be checked against the standards and norms for the country. If you cannot obtain a transcript from the applicant then you can request one direct from the institution.
A good general knowledge of countries’ education systems is a useful asset for anyone doing these sorts of checks.
UK NARIC offers advice and support to universities and colleges in all these areas – visit www.naric.org.uk to find out more.
“You can’t be expected to know every university in Brazil, but make sure you know the main ones”
The PIE News reporter Beckie Smith writes about some of the key takeaways from UK NARIC‘s recent seminar on education fraud.
On 29 April I attended a fascinating seminar hosted by UK NARIC at Birmingham Metropolitan College’s Sutton Coldfield campus, offering insight into fraud in the international education sector. As well as playing detective with a wad of bogus certificates from a handful of different education markets (I now feel like I could confidently spot a fake Pakistani school certificate at 50 paces), delegates received a number of useful tips to help them safeguard against fraud in their institutions. Here are some of the lessons learned from the event.
