Higher Education Degree Datacheck (Hedd) is the UK's official service for verifying
academic degrees
An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions often offer degrees at various levels, usually divided into un ...
and authenticating universities. It also takes action against
diploma mill
A diploma mill or degree mill is a business that sells illegitimate diplomas or academic degrees, respectively. The term ''diploma mill'' is also used pejoratively to describe any educational institution with low standards for admission and gradua ...
s purporting to be UK universities. It is funded by the UK government through the
Higher Education Funding Council for England
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in Engl ...
(HEFCE) and is run by Prospects.
Hedd was created by Prospects in partnership with HEFCE and the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It was created by the Gordon Brown premiership on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Uni ...
in response to fears about fake universities and CV fraud, and went live in 2012 after a beta launch in 2011. At the time, it was believed that there were twice as many fake universities in the UK as real ones. In 2014, it revealed that 8% of degrees submitted could not be verified, with the most common problem being claiming a
first class degree when the actual award was at a lower classification. Hedd issued a warning in 2016 against posting graduation selfies with certificates shown, as this would allow fraudulent websites to see and copy the designs of degree certificates. By January 2017, Hedd had shut down more than 40 fake university websites since the UK government announced a crackdown in June 2015, and that it had had reports of over 90 bogus institutions. In December 2017 it officially partnered with the Chinese Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange to validate the degrees of UK graduates returning to or entering China.
See also
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Bogus colleges in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom a bogus college is a fake college or university used as part of an immigration and visa scam, whereby people from overseas can apply for a British student visa and illegally reside in the United Kingdom. They have also been ...
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Diploma mill
A diploma mill or degree mill is a business that sells illegitimate diplomas or academic degrees, respectively. The term ''diploma mill'' is also used pejoratively to describe any educational institution with low standards for admission and gradua ...
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List of unaccredited institutions of higher education
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Ofqual
The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is a non-ministerial government department that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in England. Colloquially and publicly, Ofqual is often referred to as the exam "watchdog ...
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Job fraud
External links
Higher Education Degree Datacheckofficial website
Hedd blog
References
{{Reflist, 2
Education in Manchester
Education controversies in the United Kingdom
Education fraud
Fraud in the United Kingdom
Fraud organizations
Higher education organisations based in the United Kingdom
Organisations based in Manchester
Unaccredited institutions of higher learning