Texas and Oregon Begin Taking Action Against Diploma Mills

backgroundsonline

Rochville University has long been a source of tension within the academic and employment circles; this institution provides degrees to individuals with no experience or proven knowledge in the field, for a price. These types of institutions are often referred to as “diploma mills” and it’s not uncommon to discover an applicant utilizing a fake degree from such facilities when performing a pre-employment background check, we see them all the time.

Essentially, those of us who like to take shortcuts at the expense of others pay these diploma mills a fee and are provided a degree based on “personal life experiences” which they then provide to potential employers with their fingers crossed. Rochville University is just one of many, but they’ve seen extensive legal scrutiny as of late so we figured their misfortune is an ideal excuse to remind employers to thoroughly background check their applicants.

Rochville University, along with its sister school, Bellevue High School, were established about a decade ago by Salam Kureshi, who lives in Pakistan. Last year, Kureshi was sued by 30,000 students who purchased high school diplomas from Bellevue, only to discover they aren’t valid. How 30,000 people managed to overlook the fraudulent methods they were taking to obtain these documents would typically be a mystery to me, but since they were probably looking for an easy way out of having to perform actual coursework, I guess there really isn’t much of a riddle to be solved. In the end, Kureshi was ordered to pay more than $22 million as a result.

Clearly, these facilities are a huge red flag to employers looking to hire anyone with a grain of honesty. However, they’re not the only ones recognizing them as a rapidly growing problem. For example, the State of Texas describes Rochville as “an illegal supplier of education credentials”, and has made it a crime to use a degree from them while trying to obtain employment. Also, last month, the state of Oregon upheld the termination of a state employee, based on the fact that he included a Rochville bachelor’s degree on his resume years before. From our perspective as a background screening agency, it’s good to see serious action being taken to eliminate this strategy of obtaining a degree on a legal level.

On a side note, a common trait for diploma mills, which is worrisome but often yields hilarious results, is there absolute and complete lack of integrity for their product. How is that hilarious? Well, the trail blazers over at Rochville University were the first school in the world to award a bachelor’s degree to a canine. The dog, whose name is being withheld, majored in “food taste” and he clearly had some amazing professors.

Bottom line here is, making sure an applicant is qualified is a key aspect of the hiring process and until institutions like these are no longer allowed to legally operate, it is important to stay vigilant and informed on the accreditation of each educational facility provided to you by your potential new hire.

This article originally appeared on backgroundsonline