Use of fake certificates increases to secure university places

Nov 5 2008 by Jon Tunney, The Journal

FOREIGN youngsters are using fake qualifications to try to secure places at North East universities.

Overseas students are worth about £80m a year to Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland and Northumbria.

But police investigations following the killing of two former Chinese students in Arthur’s Hill, Newcastle, revealed a scam that goes to the heart of the university applications process.

Detectives discovered Zhen Xing Yang – tortured and killed in his ground floor home on August 9 – had used forged degree documents to gain a place on an MA International Human Resource Management course at Newcastle.

One qualifications boss said the forgery problem was getting worse – and that admissions officers were being trained to spot frauds. And it is feared some hard-pressed universities might turn a blind eye because of the funds overseas students bring with them.

Tim Buttress, policy chief at Cheltenham-based UK Naric – which monitors overseas university qualifications – said: “The problem is gathering momentum. More and more fake qualifications are coming through. We offer a course on how to spot fake qualifications and all the universities in the North East have attended. “It’s one of the most popular courses we run.”

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) investigates more than 3,000 applications every year for fraud. Charles Lowe, UCAS verification co-ordinator, said some overseas students applied to get into the UK, while others used the offer of a place to set up bank accounts.

Mr Lowe said the biggest problem for UCAS used to be fake applications from Nigeria. But he said China had now taken over the number one spot, with 500 rejected in 2004.

He said: “I would agree the problem is getting bigger and bigger. A high percentage of people lie on their CV and some embellish the truth more than others.

“Our system is not foolproof and without passing on all of the responsibility to the universities, the last point of checking qualifications is with them. We are here to help them, but they have to be satisfied at the enrolment stage that everything is fine.”

Newcastle University said it had 120 fraudulent applications last year.

Spokesman Mick Warwicker said: “Newcastle University has well over 2,000 overseas students and has ongoing processes for checking the validity of applications. While we are aware one of the two Chinese graduates had suspicious documents, we have not seen any special measures since then.”

Northumbria University also vets its overseas applications.

A spokeswoman said: “Of the 8,000 to 10,000 applications we receive each year from international students, approximately half a dozen students are turned away per year because of producing false documents.”

Durham and Sunderland universities did not specify the number of false applications spotted during their vetting procedures. Richard Emborg, Durham’s director of student recruitment and admissions, said: “If a current student is found to have gained entry through fraudulent means, established procedures are in place to remove them from the university.”

A Sunderland University spokesman said: “We can recall few instances of receiving fake documents, but when we have, they have been very early in the application process and we have simply not made the applicant an offer.”

On October 28, Guang Hui Cao, 30, of Castle Close, Morpeth, appeared before Newcastle magistrates on October 28 charged with murdering Zhen Xing Yang and his girlfriend Xi Zhou. He was remanded in custody to appear before Newcastle Crown Court on November 10.