Every week at the University of Washington in Seattle, the registrar's office staff comes across at least three fraudulent diplomas. Every month, they uncover about two fraudulent transcripts. "And these are just the ones we see," says Helen Garrett, registrar and chief officer for enrollment information services. "Our student database has not been hacked and […]
Academic fraud accusations create a myriad of challenges for colleges and universities. Many questions arise. What violations of a rule, regulation or statute occurred? Who was involved? Did anyone turn a blind eye? Unfortunately, most universities are not skilled at answering these questions in a fair and timely manner. Conducting such investigations is difficult and […]
Criminals who receive financial aid fraudulently basically steal money from bona fide students and institutions. Beyond the loss of education funds, efforts to squeeze out fraud can also make financial aid more elusive for those who need it. "To crack down on fraud, we may have to put more hoops to jump through in order […]
Recent highly publicized cyber attacks have spurred a growing public awareness of the risk that sensitive personal information might be accessed by unauthorized third parties. It is not as well-known that the industry sector with the highest number of breaches is higher education: since 2005, higher education institutions have been the victim of 539 breaches […]
Picture this: sticky notes on every screen. And if there are none on the monitor, lift up the keyboard. Nothing there? Try opening the pencil drawer. Unfortunately, it's not hard for the wrong person to find these notes, and it's the passwords written on these innocuous slips of paper that worry IT administrators at every […]
It's an uncomfortable truth for colleges and universities—cheating happens. And by many accounts, it happens a lot. Although cheating isn't new, technology facilitates it and student culture more readily accepts it. Students may believe outstanding scholastic performance—achieved by whatever means necessary—paves the difficult-to-navigate path to success. Added into this mix is the popularity of online […]
Roughly six years ago, David Lewis served on a team that was designing policies for a new college in the Middle East. As president of OperationsInc., a national HR consulting and outsourcing firm, he met with seven top U.S. higher ed institutions to review their policies, including travel. To Lewis, travel has now become "a […]
Steven Shaw spends much of his time analyzing spreadsheets and watching for trends. He also flies across the globe on extended trips that can last weeks. This might sound like a lot of work and resources—but for international student recruitment to be effective, it takes attention, buy-in and leadership at all levels, says Shaw, assistant […]
To confront today's financial challenges, every college and university needs to create more operational efficiency. Some of these efficiencies start in the business office. For instance, key aspects of higher education financial management are paper-intensive and outdated —a stark contrast to the first-class technology used in campus classrooms. A primary target for business officers should […]
