Admissions fraudsters ‘targeting crunch points in cycle’

Forged documents and inflated grades make up the bulk of attempted admissions fraud in UK higher education, with scammers targeting busy periods in the cycle in an attempt to sneak through wrongdoing.

With institutions under increased pressure to stamp out fake students, the latest data shows a trend toward more organised fraud pushed by those working on behalf of students and universities, according to the chief executive of a company that carries out hundreds of thousands of checks on admissions documents.

Qualification Check figures shared with Times Higher Education show that the overall fraud rate remained steady at just over 4 per cent in 2025 but the risk was not evenly distributed.

More fraud cases originated in countries such as Bangladesh, Ghana and the US in the last admissions round compared with 2024, while other known hotspots such as Pakistan and India saw drops.

August and September were seen as the riskiest months, with fraudsters anticipating that admissions teams might be less vigilant under pressure as enrolment deadlines approached.

Qualification Check chief executive Ed Hall said trends pointed to a rise in fraud perpetuated by unscrupulous agents preying on students’ ambitions to get into top institutions.

“If an individual is coming from far away, they could be using somebody to help guide them through the process. We are seeing some of those businesses – quite often one-man bands – inflating grades to get them in, sometimes without the individual knowing.

“They are promising to get people in, to deal with all the logistics and the temptation is there to inflate the grades.”

Forged documents accounted for the largest share of detected fraud, at 40 per cent of cases.

Hall said advances in technology had made it easier for students to fake certificates, and some were even creating replica websites to display fake results.

Other instances of fraud were connected to institutions having no record of an applicant or reporting that a grade submitted by a prospective student had been embellished.

The rate of fraud among undergraduate applications was far higher, at 6.65 per cent, than among postgraduate applications (2.39 per cent), contradicting the perception that fraudsters mainly target master’s courses.

Hall said this could be partly down to an overall increase in checks at undergraduate level in recent years but also because the source material – for example high school transcripts – is more difficult to verify and individuals think they can get away with it.

He said that there was increased pressure on the sector from the likes of UK Visas and Immigration to address potential fraud in admissions and there was an opportunity for universities to differentiate themselves from global competitors by showing that they are “robust” in identifying those trying to game the system.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com