In 2023 the Council of Europe (CoE) for the first time presented a grant project for the national information centers of non-EU countries. The National Information Center for Academic Recognition and Mobility (ArmENIC) submitted the project “Equipping education stakeholders with competences to detect and combat education fraud/DETECT/” to the call, which was selected for funding.
The project was launched in March 2023 and it will end in December 2023. Within the framework of the project, a survey was conducted among 28 recognized higher education institutions (HEIs) of the RA to assess what skills HEIs need to detect and combat fraud. The aim of the project was to expand the dialogue with universities on qualification fraud and its detection. In particular, as a result of the survey, a training course in accordance with the needs of the universities was developed.
On October 31, 2023, in the framework of the project, an international conference was held for the leadership of the universities, the purpose of which was to present the Armenian and other countries’ experience of effective fight against education fraud. Experts from the national information centers of France, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Georgia, as well as the president of the TAICEP (the Association for International Credential Evaluation Professionals), presented their countries’ experience in the fight against fraud as well as took part in the conference.
The conference was followed by a training designed for the staff of the international departments and admissions of the universities. The aim of the training was to equip the participants with knowledge about educational fraud and the necessary methodology for its prevention, detection and combating, contributing to the organization of awareness activities, fraud prevention, early detection, raising legal and ethical issues. The training was jointly conducted by the experts of CIMEA-NARIC/Italian and ArmENIC/Armenian National Information Centers, presenting many examples. 50 representatives from the RA HEIs participated in the training and were awarded certificates at the end of the training.