With the exposure of Glen Oakley and the subsequent investigation undertaken by the Independent Commission Against Crime in New South Wales, Australia, there has been an approach made to resurrect the Degreeoftruth project. For those of you who are interested, you can access the site here: http://www.degreeoftruth.com.au I am aiming to keep the site updated with relevant news and details of systems used around the world to guard against fake degree activity. If any of you have any interesting and pertinent information to share, I would be more than happy to host it on the site. Cheers, George
George, How would you have been able to help in this instance, this was a case of plain old fraud? He manufactured the phony degrees in the name of real universities. There was no mention of accreditation issues or such matters. Would you kindly expand on how your business would approach such matters as in the case above. I am interested to know what use your venture has in Australia or the role it plays at state or federal level. Thanks. B.
Degreeoftruth model in Australia Dear Bozzy, I don't know if you managed to read the full case on Mr Oakley, however a model such as degreeoftruth would have addressed this problem a long time ago. By the way, this issue has nothing to do with legal capcity to confer degrees or accreditation - it is pure fraud, and that is what degreeoftruth endevours to address. Mr Oakley obtained original testamurs (Bachelor, Master, PhD) from 3 Australian universities and copied his name on to them. He then organised a Justice of the Peace to notarise photocopies and used the photocopies for all of his employment applications. Over a 15 year period, approximately 5 professional employment agencies did background checks on Mr Oakley, but never verified his qualifications. In essence, they accepted the notarised copies as bona fide evidence. The game was up only when the member of an interview panel did not remember Mr Oakley undertaking a purported degree when he originally looked after the program. Degreeoftruth aims to remove this problem, by providing an online fully searchable database to employment agencies so these checks can be made with ease. The Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (Australia), the peak body representing all major employment agencies in Australia, has embraced the concept and has indicated that it will promote the service to all of its members. All the relevant privacy laws at both state and federal level have been addressed by our lawyers and there is no problem with providing this information in a digital format. For security, we plan on hosting the data on the National Data Centre's servers, where similar data used by the ACCC and other government bodies is hosted. Degreeoftruth, at both a federal and state level in Australia, adds another level of protection and further strengthens the current governments agenda of quality assurance in Australian higher Education. Employers are required to undertake due dilligence checks and all Australian graduates have a right to have their degree protected. The degreeoftruth model aims to satisfy all stakeholders in the system. For your information, you may wish to view the News section on the site for updated informatioin around the world. China, India and the UK are the most proactive at the moment in addressing this problem, whilst Sweden is developing a searchable database to provide a similar service. Cheers, George
Dear Bozzy, Yes, similar, but there will be major advantages for the universities. They will, for instance, be able to access the system for no charge, making the cross enrolment procedure within the main 44 higher education providers far more fluid and less time consuming. There will, on the other hand, be a subscription and 'pay-per-view' service for the recruitment agencies and overseas providers. Cheers, George
