Sun, 21 Jan 2018 09:26:21 +0000
AN increasing number of Zambians, including some politicians are taking the short cut of paying for academic achievements like doctorates and professorships and insisting they be addressed as such.
Parliament was recently told by Higher Education Minister Professor Nkandu Luo who emphasised that honourary degrees were not recognised anywhere in the world as a qualification, but were seen as an honour to somebody who had excelled in a particular area.
Prof Luo also directed that the Zambia Qualification Authority (ZQA) ought to put an end to people getting fake honourary degrees. Prof Luo said that it was shameful that some people had gone to an extent of buying degrees online so that they could be called Doctors and be able to stand for general elections as per the flawed new Zambian constitutional prerequisite whose lacuna does not take into account the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ) and ZQA’s role in determining the criteria and authenticity of academic qualification of a politician intending to participate in the general elections.
As a result, in 2016 polls, some affluent and crafty politicians got away with fake academic qualifications. It did not matter whether they had attended lectures inside a college lecture theatre or not – let alone not having any learning experience in the Form Five or Grade 12 classroom.
It was a breath of fresh air needed to blow away the stench brought about by Zambians buying fake degrees online when Prof Luo promised that she would soon issue a policy statement to halt the trend.
The Minister explained that genuine doctorates were earned and not acquired through dubious means.
The story made depressing reading especially in a country that prides itself on being an all-round educated nation. However, this is nothing new or strange in a country that has witnessed a proliferation of bogus certificates acquired from online “degree mills” for the purpose of securing jobs in the civil service.
Why? Perhaps unsurprisingly, money is the main anchor and it features prominently in the set up and running of these online degree mills. Each year, more than 350 websites posing as legitimate online universities sell 200, 000 degrees around the world. Though they may seem real, the sites offer fake degrees, accredited by bogus institutions, for several hundred to several thousand dollars.
As the academic year approaches, these online scams are brazenly poised to reap millions from unsuspecting customers who seriously believe they are enrolling as students. There are several key telltales that an online university is little more than a degree mill. Hoping to dupe people into thinking a university is prestigious, companies would pick a fake name that sounds like an existing university.
In 2015, the New York Times published an investigation of Axact, a Pakistani degree mill that operated “universities” with names like Columbiana, Barkley, and Mount Lincoln. Sometimes, the sites would even mimic the typeface and colours of the real university, in an effort to further mask the deception.
Degree mills operate partially under the assumption that online learners want to speed through their coursework as quickly as possible. Many fake universities brag that students can receive their degree in just a couple of months or several weeks.
To be honest above else though, there are universities that offer accelerated degrees in-person or online. Earning a degree still takes some time though. If an online advertisement promises that you can earn a degree in a few days, weeks, or even months, it’s certainly a degree mill. Real degrees cost a lot of money and are priced out by the class, credit hour, or semester. Degree mills make their money by asking for all the money, typically a few hundred dollars, up front. This ensures the fake university gets paid before the customer wises up to the scam.
University degrees are proof that you earned an education. Since degree mills know they can’t reliably offer the lessons learned in a classroom, they tend to lean more heavily on “real world experience” or “life lessons” in their sales pitches. Real universities may award a few credits for work or experience, but not an entire degree.
The argument over whether Zambia could still pride itself on being a scam-free educated nation might be the subject of debate for years to come, especially when the political leaders and civil servants continue to engage themselves in buying fake degrees online. What’s crazy is that this happens frequently when the government is hiring.
With all certainty, the message to the fake degree certificate holders: You’ve wasted your money; you’ve wasted your time; you’ve killed your credibility, authorities and recruiters would soon catch up with you.
