AUNIVERSITY degree opens doors. Whether it is to improve ones’ social status, increase their chances of marriage or continuing search of a more lucrative carrier, people here are in constant search for the higher credentials of success needed to secure a promising future. What is disturbing is that the quality or even the authenticity of the degree does not seem to count. “It does not matter if the degree is fake or real, or if its holder is genuinely skilled or not,” said Abdullah, a Saudi in his late thirties who, for obvious reasons, prefers to remain anonymous. “It’s the piece of paper that counts in the end. Nothing else.”
While most go for the real thing, there are a number people in the Kingdom who appear to agree with Abdullah’s take on the value of a university degree. The Ministry of Higher Education has not quantified the problem but there are many who have chosen a piece of paper minus the proper education.
“I had been working for more than six years in the same position. I have not gotten a raise nor was I promoted to a higher position in the company,” Abdullah said. “My life changed when I got a degree that I really did not earn.” “Nothing on ground had actually changed except for that piece of paper. I received more appreciation, was given a raise and promoted all in one year’s time,” he said.
“Shockingly realistic, highest quality ‘novelty’ diplomas, degrees, certificates and transcripts” read a website that provided fake diplomas via cyberspace. One of many, the site offers a variety of documents from higher education degrees to recommendation letters. Prices ranged from $99 for a degree to $129 for a transcript (score sheet).
Fake degrees hit the news late last year when Iran’s Interior Minister at the time was sacked when it was discovered he had a bogus doctorate from Oxford University. But the rot is far more pervasive, and no country is immune. Moreover, the damage that of fake degrees can do does not stop at harming a country’s development because of fraudsters being given jobs they cannot properly fulfill. Bogus degrees can kill. Quack doctors holding fake certificates have been caught after years practicing medicine unnoticed. There are certainly others who have not been caught.
Findings of an investigation conducted by the US Department of Justice, which was leaked to the Washington based Spokesman-review newspaper last year, showed that more than 10,000 people spent $7.3 million on purchasing or attempting to purchase windmill degrees from one illegal operation. The list contained names of 68 Saudis, or persons who listed their country of residence as Saudi Arabia. One of the names on the list was a Saudi woman who had bought degrees in obstetrics and gynecology.
The Ministry of Health announced early this year that it would not renew any work contracts of doctors, nurses and medical technicians both in the private and government unless they passed a test given by the Saudi Council for Health Specialties.
It also announced that it had rejected 1,500 certificates of doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other medical technicians in various medical specializations.
“Earn a university degree in three months” and “Credited life experience” are two common punch lines of many unaccredited online universities pop ads that appear on our computer screens on a day-to-day base.
“If anyone reads ‘Degree in three months or credited life experience’, they should stay away if they are serious about continuing his or her education, ” said Professor Khaled Balhassan of Al-Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University.
“These institutions are run by con artists. It doesn’t need a rocket scientist to figure that out,” he said. “The sad thing,” he added, “is that both the educated and uneducated have fallen for the phony educational scam.”
Several so-called “institutes” in the Kingdom are reported to have become involved in the hope of a slice of the multimillion dollar “degree mill” business. They set up their operations in apartments and other commercial buildings. Claiming to be the sole representatives of foreign universities, they often started their operations jointly with online unaccredited universities. The American University of London, an unaccredited online educational institute, is one such example.
