Dubious degrees: organizations can avoid negative press by ensuring new employees have valid academic credentials

Internal Auditor, April, 2006 by Ron Aumann

IN RECENT YEARS, MANY HIGH-PROFILE individuals have been exposed for over-Stating their academic credentials. David Edmondson stepped down in February as president and chief executive officer of RadioShack Corp. after admitting he had misstated his academic record on his resume. In 2004, Laura Callahan, a senior director in the U.S. Homeland Security Department's chief information office, made headlines when it was discovered that she received her doctorate from Hamilton University in Wyoming, where her studies consisted of a four-page paper and a five-hour correspondence course on business ethics. Sandra Baldwin, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, resigned in 2002 after admitting that she had never received a doctorate from Arizona State University as she had claimed. In 2001, George O'Leary resigned as football coach at the University of Notre Dame five days after he was hired when the school learned that he did not receive a master's degree from New York University or three college football letters as his biography stated.

False academic credentials and degrees from unaccredited colleges and universities have become commonplace in the workforce. In Degree Mills: The Billion-dollar Industry That Has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas (Prometheus Books), authors Allen Ezell and John Bear assert that more than 1 million fraudulent degrees have been purchased in the past decade based on their estimates, insider reports, and seized financial records. The authors estimate that one provider of false degrees has sold more than 200,000 diplomas. A simple Google search using a dubious university name can identify many individuals with unaccredited degrees, including hotel executives, university faculty members, and consultants.

Although the risks associated with degree fraud are not traditional financial risks, they include real threats such as public embarrassment, damage to brand image, inefficient and substandard work by under-trained staff, and legal liability. Degree fraud risk comes from individuals who falsely claim a degree from an accredited university, claim a degree from a false university, or hold a degree that does not meet the organization's minimum acceptable standard. The delayed discovery of a questionable degree may bring into question all actions performed by that employee on behalf of the organization. In a worst-case scenario, the fraud may be discovered and publicly reported by an external party who is reviewing company reports or executive bios. Because most organizations are actively screening employees already, an internal audit can focus on undiscovered frauds, formulation of clear credential policies, and fine-tuning the screening process to close loopholes.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCREDITATION

With thousands of colleges and universities offering degrees, it can be difficult to tell an accredited school from a questionable one. As a starting point, it is important to understand how accreditation works.

Accreditation is a review process performed by impartial experts who evaluate criteria reflecting" the qualities of a sound educational institution or program. Accreditation should not be confused with an institution's prestige, which is the public perception of quality.

In the United States, the Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) oversee agencies that perform reviews and confer accreditation. Accreditation can be conferred at the institutional or program-specific level and can be issued on a regional, professional, or national basis.

Regional institutional accreditation is an institutionwide accreditation conferred by six regional accrediting organizations made up of a consortium of member colleges. Regional accreditation is considered the "gold standard" in U.S. education and provides the highest level of assurance to employers about a person's qualifications.

Professional, or specialized, accreditation is conferred by professional organizations in program-specific areas such as nursing, nuclear medicine, and law. Graduation from a professionally accredited program may be required for licensure in a specific field. Therefore, a degree from a professionally accredited program at a regionally accredited university provides a high level of assurance to employers.

National institutional accreditation is conferred to schools by organizations such as the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) and the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). Although DETC and ACICS are valid national accreditations, their acceptance is not as universal as regional institutional accreditation and may represent a small risk.

Any accreditation is meaningless if the applicant never actually attended or graduated from the listed organization. An employer's screening process should account for such instances.

UNACCREDITED DEGREES

Beyond the realm of accredited universities, the waters get murkier, and the risk increases. Because there is no nationwide standard for unaccredited schools in the United States, individual states must set their own licensing guidelines. Although state licensing provides some oversight, it does not require the independent academic peer review that accreditation provides. Some states have weak licensing laws, allowing a school to be licensed or state-approved with little effort. A disreputable university is free to shop around for states with the weakest regulations and set up a token residency there. Some states, on the other hand, view degree fraud as a matter of consumer protection and actively regulate the use of credentials in their state. For example, the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization (ODA) lists schools whose degrees are unacceptable for use in that state for any purpose. The ODA also lists unaccredited schools whose degrees are only suitable if they are accompanied by a lengthy disclaimer that the degree is unaccredited and unapproved by the agency.