No selfies allowed at student graduations

You’ve already been told to not throw mortar boards into the air, and now you’re being warned against graduation selfies. But for good reason.

In a recent report, Prospects’ Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD) have warned that students taking selfies celebrating with their graduation certificates are providing a perfect opportunity for sellers to create fake degrees. They can easily copy logos, crests, signatories, stamps, holograms and wording onto fake certificates and pass them off as genuine degree awards to employers. All of which can be identified from selfies and photos posted online. In recent years it has become increasingly big business and more problematic for universities and employers.

As a result, universities will now be contacted to inform students, as well as their own social media departments, to warn against publishing selfies and other photos of their graduation ceremonies. Jayne Rowley, director of Prospects’ HEDD, has likened graduation certificates to our passport, driving licence and bank details, all of which we protect from any sort of online postings. We should regard degree certificates in a similar vain.

Counterfeit certificates can be identified upon close inspection. Misspelling and the use of fake terminology, often found in America such as the use of “fall” and “winter”, as well as “Cum laude” instead of “honours”, are some of the most frequent mistakes that can help identify counterfeit certificates. However, that does not mean they are easily recognisable.

We at Leydon Lettings pass on our congratulations to all those graduating this year and wish you all the best for the future, but remind all our students to remain mindful of those who wish to take away from the achievements of your hard work and dedication to your respective university.