The feasibility of using the world wide web to authenticate higher education qualifications issued by universities and technikons

• Authors: Susanne Taylor;Johan Vorster;Ruurd Van Der Wal
• Venue: SAICSIT '02 Proceedings of the 2002 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on Enablement through technology
• Year: 2002

There is evidence of a growing concern regarding the authenticity of qualifications presented at interviews. Today's computer software makes it simple to edit documents, thereby allowing falsification of information by the unscrupulous. The use of sophisticated document scanners, printers and copiers further complicates the issue. The research revolved around an investigation of the need for authentication of education qualifications and the establishment of the feasibility of doing this by using information technology to allow for efficient and effective verification that an education qualification was attained that the results were accurately reflected. The research concluded that there is a growing incidence of and concern regarding qualification fraud, that there was a need for authentication of qualifications by Human Resource practitioners as part of the recruitment process and presented a model that met all the research objectives - an innovative model deemed to offer an efficient, effective and feasible technology solution to the problem of qualification fraud in South Africa