Posts Tagged ‘College Degrees’

Online University Education Gaining In Popularity

December 18th, 2009

Online university education is growing in popularity. More and more students are turning to higher education online to complete their secondary education and to earn their college degrees. There are several reasons that online university studies are gaining in popularity.

One reason that online university education is gaining in popularity is the advancement in technology. Not only has technology advanced but it has become more user-friendly. Several decades ago a person had to have a business degree in order to be able to do anything that was computer related. Additionally, the majority of homes did not have computers. In fact, the thought of a public computer being in Internet cafes, public libraries and community centers was not even anything anyone would consider. With technology becoming so advanced and computers so common place, more people can now access the Internet to obtain an online university education.

Availability of online university education programs has made it more popular as well. Initially, only some universities were offering a select number of courses from their traditional university on the Internet for students. This of course began to increase. Before you know it, many universities are now offering complete degrees on the Internet without students ever needing to step inside a physical classroom. With so many types of degree programs, majors and even courses to improve your current career without receiving a degree there is a rise in the number of students that are turning to online university education to meet their goals. » Read more: Online University Education Gaining In Popularity

How To Detect Bogus Fake University Degrees

August 1st, 2009

More and more people are getting arrested or sued for illegally using bogus fake university degrees to land better paying jobs. Sometimes, this is done with criminal intent and at other times, the victims innocently thought that their college or university degrees were genuine. This is because many of these so called “universities and colleges” offering fake degrees have positioned themselves so well that they are thought to be authentic, especially those bogus degree mills that are offering university degrees online.

Bangladeshi, Abu Syeed Chowdury was jailed for 4 months in Singapore when he was found to have used a fake bogus University of Dahka degree to apply for a job. He was already working in Singapore for 5 years before he was found out and so had committed a serious immigration offence.

Take for instance the case of Laura Callahan, who was the deputy chief information officer in the United States Homeland Security which is a high security department, it was discovered in June 2003 that her university degree was a fake.

It is because of such high profile university degree frauds that employers need to be very vigilant over the qualifications of their potential employees and existing employees.

The following are some signs to look out for in detecting fake university and college degrees:-

1) Dates of the degrees – The dates on the degrees are not in order and therefore are supicious. For instance, the qualification sequence should be obtaining a high school certificate, then a bachelor degree followed by an Mba or Masters and then on to a PhD degree. If someone have a PhD degree without a bachelor or Masters degree or that he have a higher degree before a lower one, then his degrees are certainly suspicious. However, someone may have this inconsistency because he had studied for degrees of different professions.

2) Imitation of branded universities and colleges- Some degree mills actually skimmed off names of famous and accredited universities. For example, Hamilton University is the fake version of the prestigious Hamilton College.

3) Errors on the degree – Check for errors such as spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. The university’s seal should be embossed and not merely printed. Real universities and colleges take pride in their degrees and will not tolerate such mistakes.

4) Speedy degrees – Degrees earned in a very short time or several degrees earned at a short time are tell tale signs of fake university and college degrees.

What can an employer do if he discovers that an employee is a bogus fake degree to secure the job? Well, depending on the job scope and seniority of the fraudster, a police report may be necessary since clients of the company may have been deceived into doing something they otherwise may not have done as a result of the employee’s misrepresentation of his educational qualifications.

Civil suits can also be taken against the employee if there were damages suffered by the company through misrepresentation of doing a job which he is not qualified to do. So, don’t ever be tempted to get a bogus fake degree to mislead because you may be prosecuted in a criminal court and have a civil suit on your head.




By: Chris Chew