Fakers gonna fake

A recent THE story covered the utterly ludicrous practice of organisations offering fake honorary degrees for sale. I’ve always found matters relating to honorary degrees entertaining (see for example this recent post). In this piece THE have followed up on a some online adverts to see what is on offer and identified a number of companies willing to award or arrange the award of fake honorary degrees:

A growing number of online businesses are offering to secure customers honorary doctorate degrees in exchange for fees of up to £10,000, a Times Higher Education (THE) investigation has found.

Companies involved stress the service can “enhance the reputation” of those purchasing the degrees but critics say the “pay-to-play model” is devaluing the accolade, more commonly awarded to the great and the good in recognition of their professional achievements.

According to the article:

THE sent a fake CV to several companies offering to help candidates attain honorary doctorates in exchange for cash.

One firm, Aimlay, which offers “edtech-based expert guidance and counsellor services for higher education aspirants”, set up a call to discuss its “honorary doctorate programme”, including the eligibility criteria, process, and the “esteemed universities” supposedly involved.

“Coming to the pricing part, it starts from £2,000 and goes up to £10,000 to £11,000,” the adviser said. When asked whether this was the cost of Aimlay’s consultation process, or the cost of securing the qualification itself, the adviser said it was “for the whole degree”.

Not sure that is a great use of anyone’s spare cash.

These things are not real

As I have written here before, honorary degrees aren’t real and mean next to nothing alongside proper, studied-for and assessed doctorates. It does seem utterly bizarre therefore that there is a market in fake honorary degrees.

This Wonkhe piece from 2021 reports on this remarkable phenomenon including one of my favourite example of a less than wholly convincing honorary degree certificate:

Back in 2021 the bizarrely named Ballsbridge University was reported to be offering fake honorary doctorate degrees in India and claiming an affiliation to the Dominican Government. Now it seems the Domincan HQ is still there but the Indian campus is the Ballsbridge Institute of Technology. Nothing about these or any of the institution’s websites looks remotely credible and it seems extraordinary that anyone would be taken in by the Ballsbridge story but you still seem to be able to apply for the award of fake honorary degrees.

The Fake Honorary Degree Police come knocking

One of my favourite stories about the honorary degrees racket is this one about  the biggest fake honorary degree bust ever where the police in India broke up a ceremony at which 150 people were being awarded honoraries:

The ceremony was organized by Gangamma Devi Shakti Preetham Trust, National Human Rights Peace Council, and International Global Peace University at “Ruchi The Prince” hotel located on Hunsur road. The chief guest of the ceremony was an MLA from Harihara, Ramappa.

In a statement, the police informed that the MLA left the premises without attending the function as Covid-19 guidelines were not being followed. Also, the organizers did not take permission for the ceremony. “The MLA was also a candidate for the degree. A total of 142 candidates from across the state and from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had gathered to obtain the degrees,” added the police officer.

The candidates had paid anywhere between Rs.20,000 to Rs.100,000 for the degrees. Some of the candidates requested police officers to give them their degrees, but the police denied such a request. The investigation is underway by Vijaynagar Police.

You can imagine the scenario down the station later:  “but officer, I paid 200 quid for that honorary degree in yoga and hired this gown for the occasion, please let me have the certificate”.

As demonstrated by its certificate above the International Global Peace University looks a bit ropey to say the least. It’s not clear whether it still exists or if it has transformed into a similarly named fake university with a new fake website. 

Peace be with you

There is clearly still a market for fake degrees, even honorary ones, especially in an economic downturn. I remain mystified though why people think getting a degree without working for it is legitimate or that cheating the education system is somehow acceptable. And paying a hefty sum for the privilege of having a fake, fake degree seems unwise in the extreme. No-one should be believing that they can really enhance their reputation this way.

But credentials remain the real currency of higher education and all legitimate universities do need to protect their value and employers do need to check the qualifications of applicants. Especially if they claim to have an honorary degree from a university you’ve never heard of.