Cash for Qualifications Week In Week Out

Tonight we go undercover to expose Foreign students getting lessons in

how to cheat and how to beat Beazer deadlines. -- visa. We catch the

conmen dealing in dodgy Diploma. If people are committing scams,

they should be worried. We are after them.

This has year marks and your grades. It is just cheating.

Can we ask you some questions about Every year, more than 200,000

overseas students come to Britain. Around 15,000 of those are snapped

up by Welsh universities. It is a multi-million pound business. There

is another side to the trade. A black market in bogus

qualifications of by some to qualify for an extended stay in the

country. Some are not particularly interested in studying. They are

interested in special two-year work these as that only available to

students. -- work visas. We discovered that there would be

little studying for some students. There are lessons in how to why and

how to cheat. This is our undercover journalist.

She is posing as an Indian student who wants to live and work in Wales.

She is in the market for a graduate work be staff. They are being

phased out in April and he is not a graduate. -- work visa.

I have no background in business. I have never really studied and I

have no clue. An MBA should take experienced executives of an idea

of study. I am calling about the course. How much does it cost?

She will not spent years studying. She is just spending. The rush is

on for thousands of students to get these work these as before the

rules are changed in April. -- work visas. People will spend the money

that allows them to recoup the money by working on getting the day

qualification. Some colleges are advertising these

fast track MBA qualifications, with some of them even being accredited

This man was happy to help students cheat their way to the University

of Wales degree in time to apply A few days later, our undercover

journalist phoned him. I explained I had to finish the MBA course in

time to apply for the work the staff. -- visa. She has been told

to ask for the director of A postgraduate Diploma in business

is running at the college. It is worth up to two-thirds of an MBA.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 50 seconds

It is a 15 month course but this If she buys the diploma and the

University accept said, she will have got up to two-thirds of the

work of an MBA. Shall will be on track to get a degree in time to

apply for her graduate work these are. -- work visa. He says that for

some more money she can apply for She pays a deposit and is told her

application form will be backdated. It will look like she has been an

online student for months with a company called professional

He told me I would have to go to where revision class. I am not sure

what I will be that the housing because I have never studied the

subject before. -- what I will be revising.

There were others in the class as well.

It was clear from the outset that I was buying this qualification. This

was cheating and the lecturer knew what was going on.

This is the lighter. He gave them questions and answers to deplore my

exams. He told them not to tell the UK Border Agency how quickly they

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 50 seconds

He told them what subjects they should pretend to have studied and

given a lesson in how to do see the Lying to the UK Border Agency to

get an extension is a climate -- criminal offence.

There are prison sentences and you could be deported and your passport

would be taken by the UK Border Agency. For the facilitators,

helping students to cheat, what are the consequences? Jail. The risk of

exposure. The UK could blacklist them. Prison, there is no bigger

risk. Some were prepared to take that

risk. This lecturer teaches at another college. It is in London

but you can study University of Wales courses. He advised the class

to use their dodgy diploma us to end role there. Our undercover

reporter did not return to sit the exams. She was told the course was

full. This college is in Hounslow. The

courses are designed and tot here but the University of award --

awards they degrees and has responsibility for the quality and

standards of its awards. The academic director here is proud of

their performance. Quality control is actually very

important and very rigorous and is carried out by places like the

University of Wales so I think, I know, that you can guarantee that

if you had a University of Wales degree from a private sector

college, that would be the same as from a public sector university in

Wales. The admissions officer knew about

A more senior manager -- member of the staff was behind the scam. This

is that man. He is the college's registrar. His brief includes

dealing with the UK Border Agency. He is also the core director of the

exam board professional qualifications management. He said

he could provide the dodgy Diploma and the paper work to cover it up.

It is worth two-thirds of the University of Wales MBA. We have

obtained a secret recording of He said he wanted �1,000 for a very

Diploma. Once in rolled, he said he would help them cheat at the

He said he would make sure that the paperwork was all in place in case

The University of Wales inspected this college in July shortly before

our investigation began. It gave it a glowing endorsement and validated

its courses for a further five years. The University of Wales does

not have a campus where students go to study. It created a global

network of 130 colleges, with 70,000 students studying courses

leading to read degrees. Last year, the exposed failings in its multi-

million pound validation business. We exposed an illegal College in

Thailand and another in Malays are, run by a pop star with bogus

degrees. The university admitted its overseas validation procedures

were not fit for purpose. Our evidence in this programme centres

on colleges at home. A week after week presented the evidence, the

University of Wales made it the shock announcement that it would no

longer run its multi- million pounds global validation business.

It left tens of thousands students around the world facing an

uncertain future. We took our findings to the immigration

minister. That is fraught. It is clearly trying to create and

exploit a loophole in the immigration system. We are aware of

the investigations that you have undertaken. We will investigate the

individual colleges. We will, if necessary, suspend their licences

and possibly invoke their licences if we find there is widespread and

A leading academic says the fall- out could be costly for higher

education in Wales and beyond. latest suggestion that this is a

new kind of circumvention, a scam if you like, that is clearly

something that must concern the University, but concerns everyone,

because while we are trying to explain that extractions on entry

by overseas students is potentially damaging, 4.5 billion per year

spent by overseas students, anything challenging that must be

of concern. No one from the Hounslow College wanted to be

interviewed. But it has suspended its registrar, the area men is --

the Admissions Officer and lecturer. The police have been informed and

it once did his associate itself from any alleged wrongdoing. The

body which accredits the university has suspended it whilst it

investigates any malpractice. This man denies encouraging any students

to cheat and says he is not responsible for anything done by

the lecturer and he has no access to exam papers, saying you -- say

no students were issued with Certificates. The admissions

officer denies he was directly involved with helping students to

cheat and the agent says he had -- says his offer to students was a

marketing stunt and he was not responsible for what others may

have done. How low. He is not here? I am from

the BBC. He has gone to end they are. India? -- India.

Two days later, he told us he did not intend for anyone to cheat,

saying he did not know what the exam questions would be, giving

only suggested answers. The principal at this college did

agree to talk to us. He said his college had only been hired as a

venue by P Q M. Students were told how to fill in

to avoid detection by the authorities. Obviously, that is

appalling behaviour. We would definitely condemn that behaviour

and ourselves as a college, but we were not involved in the activities

that were happening. The problem is, the director of

operations in his college knew what was going on and works here. And he

has been reprimanded. We have taken action against him. He has now

resigned as director of operations. As principal, I suppose the buck

stops with you. Cheating went on. At best, that is naive and, at

worse, negligent. It was bad. I cannot take responsibility for

actions done by area director who was my superior and who has not

communicated with me. The director did not want to be interviewed. He

denied any involvement in helping students to cheat.

What do you fear is the worst-case outcome? Basically, that the UK

borders agency would revoke our licence and we lose jobs. We heard

about another scam leading to a University of Wales in B A E and an

even shorter short cut. -- MBA. In the shadow of Wayne Daley Stadium,

our reporter of meet someone else. -- Wembley Stadium.

The guy I spoke to said he could help, but did not want to get into

details over the telephone. This is the man she spoke to, he says he

can get her a diploma without He is offering to sell her a

diploma from two main exam boards. These award qualifications to

thousands of students every year. His colleague takes the cash. He

says the deplore marble get her into a number of colleges running

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 50 seconds

MBA colleges validated by, amongst What do you have? This is a

postgraduate diploma in business. Right, I know you have not studied

for that, it takes about 12 months. No studying, no exams, nothing.

questions? The no, I just needed to pay their cash. A few weeks later,

she was sent a document saying she had been a full-time business

student at the North London Management School in Edgware. And

this document is from another college. I have not even heard of

this college. It says she attended, completed studies and a just

awaiting your certificate. Amazing! Yet smack. A few weeks later, she

was told to go to the North London management school to collect her

diploma. It is the first time she has been there, but that is not

what official documents will say. I was told to fill in application

foreign Roman, which was surprising, because I was picking up a letter.

What do you have? Have you been able to cheat the system? Yes, I

have, I have a certificate. It even has a hologram. This is real.

It has all your modules, all you a Marks and grades and due past them

all. Well done. This is just a cheating. It has your grades and

due past them all. We told degrading body what we had bought

an be confirmed the diploma was genuine. We immediately suspended

the company concerned and instigated an investigation. I am

absolutely appalled when I heard about instances of people

potentially conducting fraud or ultimately malpractice. The company

suspended at has also launched its own investigation and has suspended

links with both ought sprig College and the North London Management

School. -- Oxbridge college. Oxbridge says they knew nothing

about the illegal activities and has suspended them both and advised

staff to call police it either returns to work. North London

management school says it is shocked by our evidence and has

launched an investigation. The undercover reporter was told to

take the aplomb and a role at a college in Birmingham. -- take the

diploma. She filled in the application form and went along

with the diploma to enrol. The it was accepted with no problems. I

told them I needed to finish their MBA course to apply for a study

work visa. I was told, if I worked hard, it would be possible and it

would be awarded by the University of Wales. Because I had a diploma,

I was told I was exempt from studying 50% of the course. Were

she to complete the top-up course, she would be eligible for a. Lying

on an application is criminal. -- eligible for a student back. She

did not want to break the law, but could have. We told be graduate

school we bought the student's diploma. We were thanked for

informing them and all measures were taken to check qualifications

used to gain admission to its courses. The men who sold us the

diploma up and I wanted to speak to them.

I have visited their addresses, off had suddenly disappeared from their

homes. We track e-mail and call them and it seems they do not want

to answer. The UK Border Agency says it is carrying out a full

investigation into our findings. After 2008, all students coming

into the UK have been fingerprinted and data is on systems. Even if

they go underground, up once police picked them up, their fingerprints

will match and to details will come out whether they are wanted, what

do they have all the estate, so there is no way you can change your

name, details, but you cannot change your fingerprints. We were

declined an interview and I caught up with the new Vice-Chancellor

after he had announced a revised academic strategy and an end to

validation. It is a response to changes in Welsh higher education.

Can we ask you some questions about the latest scandal? I am happy to

answer any I can. As how the university done its business

created a system in which people can cheat their way to UK

university degrees and visas? wasn't -- I was made aware earlier

about serious allegations and I have referred them to the police

and it would be inappropriate for me to say anything until the police

have finished their investigations. Can I then ask you about the

college and Hounslow? Alligators Reeve validated it for another five

years. -- You're validate us. issues raised are very serious. It

has to be considered with care, and in the context of my work on my

first day as Vice-Chancellor, I have noted the issues to the police

and have no more to say until the police have finished their report.

For those we have exposed offering to help students to cheat the