More than 30 fake UK universities shut down by Government in past year

Majority of institutions cannot be prosecuted as they are based outside Britain

HEDD has already issued a warning aimed at university students about the dangers of sharing graduation selfies online (Rex Features)

Over 30 fake UK universities and colleges have been shut down since last year as part of a Government-led clampdown, it has been revealed.

Around 80 per cent of the fake institutions reported to the Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD) are based outside Britain, meaning they cannot be prosecuted.

In conjunction with graduate careers experts, Prospects, HEDD confirmed the Department for Education has commissioned it to continue the fight against degree fraud with a new emphasis on international cooperation which will see year two of the project focus on dealing with offenders at a local level.

Prospects was appointed last year by the former Department for Business, Innovation & Skills to reduce the number of unaccredited institutions by increasing prosecutions whose fraud team has been working with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and other law enforcement agencies to force closure of operators violating the Education Reform Act.

Jayne Rowley, director for Prospects HEDD described how “incredible progress” has been made over the last year, which has seen the team develop a “shutdown process” with law enforcement agencies while “making alliances” overseas. She said: “We’re in a good place to make a bigger impact on offenders based outside our legal system.

“With the onset of the Internet and distance learning, degree fraud is a borderless crime and we must collaborate with agencies around the world to deal with it. We also need to get people thinking more about prevention. We’ve developed free toolkits for higher education providers and employers to help them develop policies on tackling degree fraud.”

As part of the project, Prospects has been raising awareness of degree fraud. Degree verification through HEDD has increased 16 per cent year-on-year. More than 116,000 checks and a total of 220 bogus institutions have been officially identified since the service launched in 2011.

HEDD already issued a warning this summer aimed at university students about the dangers of sharing graduation selfies online. The team said sellers of fake degrees are able to access the latest designs from photos posted onto social media sites of graduates celebrating with their certificates.

Logos, crests, signatories, stamps, holograms, and wording can all be easily copied onto fake certificates and passed off as genuine to unwitting employers, the warning added.

Not only is the issue one being tackled in the UK, but in China also which has exposed 30 fake higher education institutions this year alone at a time millions of high school students across the country are preparing to apply for university.

The country’s state press agency also confirmed that, since 2013, 400 fake universities have been outed by an education website.