A one day international conference on “Fraud in International Higher Education” will be organised on 9 October 2017 by the National Information Center for Academic Recognition and Mobility (ARMENIC) of the Republic of Armenia (RA).
The conference was organised in the framework of the project “Strengthening Integrity and Combating Corruption in Higher Education in Armenia” under the European Union and Council of Europe joint programme for Partnership Co-operation framework in the Eastern Partnership Countries for 2015-2017.
The aim of the conference was to raise the awareness of fraud in higher education by defining the most widely spread forms of fraud in Armenia and worldwide, and ways and means for their detection and combating. In particular the conference presented the recent developments concerning diploma and accreditation mills, fraudulent online education, copycat websites as well as fraud committed by individuals. Moreover, a handbook published by ARMENIC entitled “Fraud in International Higher Education” was also presented, which is a useful tool for higher education institutions, applicants, students and employers. The representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of the RA as well as Council of Europe delivered welcome speeches. International experts from the National Information and Recognition Centers of Italy (CIMEA-NARIC Italia), Sweden (Swedish ENIC-NARIC), and Russian Main State Center for Education Evaluation (Glavexpertcenter) as well as Groningen Declaration Network made presentations and share their experience and good practice.
The international conference was the first of its type in the RA that would raise the awareness of fraud in higher education and gather together providers of higher education, state representatives, students, employers, and international organisations dealing with higher education.
Around 60 participants were invited to the event including representatives from universities, government agencies, international higher education organizations, employers and students.
