Hyderabad: Advanced security features in certificates issued by Osmania University haven’t stopped some unscrupulous persons from tampering with the certificates, and at the same time, the varsity too is upping its game to tackle such malpractice.
From being a rare occurrence once in several years, the frequency of fake certificates being exposed by the varsity has gone up as well.
The university, every three months, is unearthing at least 10 to 12 fake certificates while verifying their genuineness as sought by government agencies and private companies. Before employing candidates, government, private and corporate companies seek the varsity’s help to verify certificates submitted by candidates. Some organisations were making online requests while others were approaching through third party institutions to get the prospective employee’s certificates verified.
According to officials, six certificates between February and July 2020 were found to be fake, while between November 2019 and January 2020, the authorities exposed 13 fake certificates. Similarly, 26 certificates were found to be fake between February and May 2018.
Many were found tampering with marks and inflating the same. In some cases, candidates were found to change their marks from second division to distinction, while in some cases, fake degree or PG certificates were produced though the candidate had not cleared the relevant examination. In a recent case, a candidate who bagged a job in a multinational company here was found to have inflated marks in his certificates. “We find fake certificates after the academic year ends as candidates join the companies. Not just from local government, private and corporate companies, we also get requests from foreign universities and companies abroad to verify certificates of candidates,” an official said.
Just like security features in currency notes, OU certificates have features like logo, watermark, a particular paper thickness with each certificate also coming with a unique code number. “Generally, we find fake certificates of short memos in professional courses like engineering, pharmacy, MBA etc. After verifying certificates, we provide a genuineness certificate to the employer. Periodically, we give details of the fake certificates to the police,” a senior official said.
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