I work for a small company and we are just about to hire our first external person who is not known to us. His CV says he has a degree and whilst I have no reason to doubt that I would like to check anyway. He has sent us a copy of his degree certificate so I know the university and the year he graduated. Do I just phone up the uni? Or is there another way of getting this information?

That’s what I’d do!

If it’s this guy, don’t hire him.

+1

Why would he lie? They’re not worth anything.

And if the uni won’t tell you (which I doubt – otherwise what’s the point in getting a certificate from them?) then they should be able to tell you how to check.

Nothing wrong with checking.

Call the University in the first instance to ask what their process is. They will normally ask for evidence that the person in question has authorised them to release the information to you, and may want this to be in writing. I’m not aware of any other way of checking this in the UK other than with the issuing institution.

Ring the registrar’s office. But as -m- says you’ll need to prove you have permission due to data protection laws.

Inclinometer?

Inclinometer?

best!

?

Ask him things that only a graduate will know like what drink has the highest alcohol content per pound and what TV program would you expect to find on BBC1 at 11 in the morning.

Check his birth certificate: If he was born from 1981 onwards he will almost certainly have one.

ask him if he can…
1. skin up
2. play super nintendo till the early hours.
3. survive on a diet of nothing but cheap larger and beans on toast

if so then he may not have a degree but he sure was a stewdent

Facebook?

Have you just googled their name and the uni they went to? I just tried that for myself and some obvious/affirming results came up on the first couple of pages.

Just ask for confirmation of his degree when he joins. If he can’t provide it then he’s out the door for lying.

Thanks for the ideas so far, I have googled and nothing has come up that either confirms or denies he has a degree, though he certainly attended the uni.

aP, what kind of confirmation do you have in mind? Having seen my degree certificate I’m pretty sure that I could knock up a forgery in about 15 minutes if I wanted to.

I think there are people you can employ to check up on CV details…but this is for the really paranoid employers.

If you aren’t willing to accept a certificate as evidence then I’m not sure I’d want to work for you! 😉

Alternatively, why not offer 6 months probationary period. If in those 6 months he proves to be good at his job who cares if he lied.

I think there are people you can employ to check up on CV details…but this is for the really paranoid employers.

There are various agencies, but they really just take the legwork out of things – the employee signs an authorisation then they contact the educational institutions, previous employers etc and fill in the details in a nice template for you.

As before, there’s nothing wrong with checking a degree is valid, any more than there is in taking up references, or checking someone’s entitlement to work in the UK. To be honest I’d be more worried if an employer wasn’t asking me for information to do some basic background checks.

My certificates have a holographic logo etc IIRC, and I have a full academic transcript of all the courses I took and my scores in each?