Are you checking academic credentials as part of your referencing process?

There has always been a risk that some graduates may try to fake qualifications, and the rise of AI will lead to more artificially generated applications, and sophisticated counterfeits

The latest edition of Prospects Luminate shows that just 52% of large businesses verify all academic credentials. Dropping to 37% of medium, and 29% small.

If you’re not doing this then it may be an idea to incorporate it as a standard part of the referencing process. For example seeing a copy of the certificate or taking a reference from the university.

The most obvious forms of fraud are easily checked against university records. Maybe someone said they got a better grade than they did, or attended a different university, or did a different course. Or some may say that their course is more recent than it actually was.

But some certificates may be fake; examples of indicators are listing the university name incorrectly ( for example ‘Manchester University’ instead of ‘The University of Manchester’). Or showing a wrong insignia, or internet domain.

Identifying this is not always straightforward, and the only way to be 100% certain is to go to the awarding body and check against its records.

Or you could use a service like Hedd to do it for you.

Matthew Parry,
Director. SME Graduate Employment

You can read more blogs on the graduate employment market here

Email: matthew@sme-graduates.co.uk Telephone: 0370 774 9500

If you would like to find out more about the services I offer please contact me by email matthew@sme-graduates.co.uk or phone 0370 7749500 (local rate number) You can also see other content I have written here