Analysis of almost 18,000 applications revealed a 38% rise in suspected qualification
fraud across UK universities, according to Qualification Check – a verification company.
“The challenge is identifying where your institution is genuinely exposed without introducing unnecessary friction for legitimate applicants,” said Qualification Check CEO Ed Hall, highlighting that risk had not increased evenly across the sector.
Hall added that institutions were “under greater regulatory scrutiny than ever before,” following the UK government’s introduction of tighter compliance metrics last month, including a new Red, Amber Green (RAG) to rate institutions’ performance.
The report, which analysed applications during the current admissions cycle at 40 universities, found the overall suspected fraud rate increased from 2.86% to 3.95% year on year.
It revealed fraud signals are highly concentrated in certain origins and recruitment routes, though it is important to note that the country refers to where the qualification was awarded, not necessarily the nationality of the applicant.
Notably, qualifications issued in Nigeria (8%), Pakistan (7.3%), Ghana (5.1%) and India (4.2%), generated higher fraud signal rates than the sector average.
Elevated rates were also identified in Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Bangladesh, though the report’s authors highlighted those findings were based on smaller sample sizes.
The rise comes as preliminary data has shown a drop in CAS issuances and acceptances across several key sending markets including Pakistan and India, with Pakistan seeing the “biggest decline for any market year on year”, according to experts at Enroly.
Elsewhere, the report showed the proportion of applications where verification remained unresolved long enough to be treated as a potential fraud risk saw a significant rise, with such cases now accounting for 75% of the overall suspected fraud rate, up from 57% last year.
Hall said this showed the profile of the fraud signal was changing, with more cases arising from applicants who disengage from the verification process rather than being directly confirmed as fraudulent.
Verification doesn’t just identify fraud, it also deters it
Ed Hall, Qualification Check
“In many cases, that disengagement is the verification process working exactly as intended, preventing potentially fraudulent applications from progressing further,” he explained.
Amid a tightening of government regulations under its new BCA metrics, Hall said universities were “undoubtedly” investing more in robust admissions compliance, with increased verification naturally identifying cases that previously might have gone undetected.
Nevertheless, when comparing equivalent verification processes, there has been a “substantial increase” in fraud signals over the past year, said Hall, highlighting “increasingly sophisticated attempts to circumvent verification”.
These include cloned institutional websites and fabricated QR codes to fake verification portals, with the data relating to qualification fraud rather than personal identity, financial or English testing documents.
Hall said qualification fraud signals remained significantly higher than identity fraud, advising institutions to think about the two together, with it being “equally important” to confirm that an applicants’ qualifications are genuine and were legitimately awarded.
He said the adoption of universal standards for checking and verifying applicants should be a “must”, emphasising the deterrent effect that robust checks have on fraudsters.
