Universities: Contract Cheating

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Wednesday 11th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

We are certainly aware of what some other countries are doing. For example, New Zealand legislated for such offences, as the noble Baroness may know, but there have been no prosecutions so far. Australia, the country that she mentioned, is adopting the same process as us—that is, it is looking at non-legislative guidance. There is no one way forward, so we are keen to continue with the process that we are undertaking.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, the claiming of spurious qualifications, particularly in the field of medicine and other areas, can lead to real harm to many individuals. Could my noble friend discuss with his colleagues the necessity of taking legislative action if we are not able to combat this in other ways?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I have already said that we have not discounted legislation, but my noble friend was perhaps referring to bogus degrees. We have the bogus degree project run by our contractor, Prospects, which seeks to identify and investigate illegitimate providers that mislead students by pretending to be degree-awarding bodies.