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April 6 2019

Fake university degrees website under investigation

The BBC reports how a website in China is selling fake degree certificates from many UK universities.  It follows an investigation by BBC Radio Kent which found the certificates for sale on the internet for £500.

The Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD) said it hoped Chinese authorities would shut the site.

The website, investigated in December, said the fake degree certificates were for "novelty purposes, or as a replacement for lost diplomas".

HEDD spokeswoman Jane Rowley said it had discovered the Chinese website offered fake certificates for universities in China and the US as well as the UK. "They are breaking the law in a number of countries," she said."We have been in contact with colleagues at the Ministry of Education in China to ask if they are able to act". She added that degree fraud damaged the reputation of higher education institutions.

"Graduates are graduating with debts of over £40,000," she said "We want to protect our young graduates in the workplace to make sure they are not being denied opportunities to work by people who have not done the work or made that kind of financial investment."