UK admissions service uncovers record number using fraudulent qualifications
A record number of students have been caught making fraudulent applications to British universities, citing non-existent or fake A-level qualifications.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) said it had uncovered 1,000 fake qualifications this year, more than twice the number in previous years.
The discovery by the UCAS fraud unit, which investigates suspicions referred to it by universities, has led to the cancellation of applications by the candidates concerned.
Many were from foreign students, including two groups of 200 applications submitted by students from China and Pakistan, whose applications were cancelled before they arrived at university. UCAS said they had been easy to spot because many of them had given the same home address.
Oxford Brookes University, which is not part of the prestigious Oxford University but which receives a huge number of foreign student applications because of its name, excluded 11 first-year students within weeks of the beginning of this academic year.
An undisclosed number of students were also expelled from Birmingham University early in the term for fraudulent applications.