Globalisation and the expansion of the Internet is making it easier for fraudsters to sell bogus degrees to gullible - and even not so gullible - people around the world.
Concerns are being expressed that fraudulent Irish degrees offered for sale will diminish the reputation of our universities abroad. On a recent business trip to Africa, Barry Crowley, general manager of technical services for PARC, a recruitment consultancy, was approached by a hotel employee. Where was Cyprus in Ireland? she wanted to know. His reply disappointed her. She had been browsing the Internet, she said, and had discovered that she could gain a bachelor's degree in hotel management from the Shelbourne University in Dublin by sending $800 via Western Union to Cyprus.
Barry Crowley knew well that there was no such establishment as the Shelbourne University. Under Irish law, no institution established since 1996 can call itself a university without government consent and legislation. On the letterhead of the "university", its address was given as the Shelbourne Dublin Building, 27 St Stephen's Green - in fact, the Shelbourne Hotel. The hotel says it has returned to sender all post addressed to Shelbourne University. The university has since changed its address to Mespil House, Sussex Road, Dublin, which is a serviced office. Phone calls are answered by voicemail, which promises to return the call. Messages left by this reporter last week resulted in no reply.
Shelbourne University describes itself as "a traditional Irish university offering undergraduate degrees, master's courses and research programmes".
It is, the website says, "a fully recognised distance-learning institution, able to provide courses and award degrees in a wide range of disciplines". It claims a full-time faculty of 134 plus 214 part-time members, an active students union and a wide range of college clubs and societies. Shelbourne University can be visited on the Internet via the ECDOL website. ECDOL - which stands for the European Council for Distance and Open Learning - says it sponsors an academic recognition service called the Academic Recognition Commission of the European Council for Distance Learning. Neither the European Commission Office in Dublin nor Dr Dennis Bancroft, who is director of Oscail - the National Distance Education Centre at DCU - have heard of these organisations. "I would be concerned," says Bancroft, "that any organisation would set at risk the reputation of distance education."
The ECDOL site provides a list of member colleges throughout the world. Some are highly regarded institutions, which are unaware that there names are being used to support bogus organisations. UL is the only Irish university on the list with links into the college's website. When contacted by EL, UL authorities expressed concern about its inclusion. However, there is nothing illegal about the ECDOL site's linking to the UL website.
UL's vice-president Prof Kevin Ryan, who is also chair of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities registrars' group, says he will be consulting with the other university registrars to see what action can be taken to prevent the misrepresentation of Irish qualifications overseas. "We are into the difficulty of policing the Internet, but we can ensure that the Irish universities make it clear to anyone using our websites that we are the only Irish universities recognised under Irish law," he says.
It's not the first time that Barry Crowley, who works mostly in Africa, has come in contact with bogus qualifications. "A doctor I was interviewing presented paperwork showing he had studied gynaecology in Ireland. It was easy to check his credentials. There was no record of his ever being in Ireland," he says. More recently, a senior accountant presented for interview with a range of qualifications, including one from the European University College Ireland. He had been awarded a bachelor of business administration degree in 1996.
The European University College is still listed in the Dublin telephone book. Dial the number and you're through to serviced offices in Dominick Street. "They operate from here," the voice at the end of the line told me. "I take messages and forward them. It's not a college, it's a correspondence course."
The fraudsters involved in selling bogus qualifications are ripping people off in more ways than one. "That doctor could create havoc and the accountant, who is in a senior position in an African state, could be a disaster," Crowley says. However there's little that can be done. "While the addresses these people are giving are Irish, the illegal activity is not taking place in Ireland. The authorities are limited in the action they can take," Crowley says.
"It's unlikely we can stop it. All we can hope for is that we can make their lives more difficult. As recruiters we have to be aware that a degree is not a degree until it is checked out."
