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Checking a degree for free
The free way to check a degree, and the "free checks" that are traps
You want to check a degree without paying, and two free checks in front of you both say "verified". Only one is reading a university's records. Here is how to tell them apart: follow the money.
Someone pays for every free education verification check. Find out who.
Say you run a small firm with two finalists, both with UK degrees, and they need checking before Monday. The official service wants an account and a card, so you look for something free.
Candidate A's certificate has a "verify free" address printed along the foot. Candidate B sent a link from their university's credentials service. Both checks are instant, and both say "verified".
Every free check has a sponsor, and the sponsor tells you whose records it reads. You can't see the sponsor on the page, so judge it by the route: did you reach this check from a register or the university's own site, or from the document in your hand?
| The check | Who pays | What it proves |
|---|---|---|
| Public register | Government or regulator | The university, not the person |
| University registry | The university (some charge) | This person's award |
| Graduate's digital record | The university and its platform | The university issued it |
| Hedd (UK), the Clearinghouse (US) | Usually the asker | This person's award |
| Address or QR code on the certificate | Whoever made the certificate | Nothing on its own |
An address or QR code on a certificate proves nothing on its own. A genuine one leads to the university's website. A seller's is a restaurant writing its own reviews.
Hedd's toolkit for employers describes fake verification services modelled on real ones, "designed to back up fake documents and fool employers into believing a credential check has been made".
Try it on the two finalists. Who pays for each of these checks? Decide, then open.
The "verify free" address printed on Candidate A's certificate
Whoever made the certificate. It could be the university or a seller, and the page won't tell you which. Start again from the university's own website.
Candidate B's link, opened on the credentials service's own website
The university, through its credentials service. You are reading its own signed record of Candidate B.
A registry's emailed reply about Candidate A, from an address you found on the university's own website
The university. The answer comes from its own records, through a door you chose.
How to validate a college degree for free: three moves
1. Check the university on a register it cannot edit
Price to you: nothing Start with the official list for the university's country:
- UK: GOV.UK's guide to each nation's list, and Hedd's institution search for recognised degree-awarding bodies.
- US: the Department of Education's DAPIP database of accredited institutions.
- Australia and New Zealand: TEQSA's National Register of providers, and NZQA's search of recognised education organisations, which you can filter to universities.
- Elsewhere: the education ministry's own list, plus our tool for official warning lists.
Look up the body that awards the degree: GOV.UK warns that not all colleges that teach degrees can award them. This checks the college, not the person.
Not on the list? Treat the degree as unconfirmed, not fake.
In the UK, a few bodies award their own unique degrees, such as the Inns of Court's Degree of the Utter Bar: GOV.UK lists them as recognised awards. For a university that has closed or merged, Hedd's search shows, where available, who now holds its records (see its FAQs). Ask the official body or the registry before you decide.
2. Ask the graduate for their official record
Price to you: nothing In the UK and US, some universities issue verified digital certificates or transcripts through platforms such as Gradintel or Parchment: the graduate sends it from their account, and you see the university's verified record. In Australia and New Zealand, My eQuals says receiving credentials shared on it "is free".
Whichever service it is, open the shared record on its own website, typed yourself or reached from the university's site.
For Singapore's OpenCerts files, opencerts.io shows whether a file is unchanged and whether the institution named in it vouches for it on its own official website; files can be copied, so check the person named is the one in front of you.
Or ask them to have their university confirm it to you. One message does it:
"Could you share an official record of your degree with me, either through your university's digital credentials service or by asking the registry to confirm it to me directly? I ask everyone the same, and a copy of the certificate isn't enough on its own."
3. Ask the university, through the front door
Price to you: nothing, or the registry's own fee Find the registry through the university's official website, ask what it charges, then send:
- the graduate's full name at the time, and any name since
- their date of birth
- the award, subject and year they claim
- their signed consent (expect to need it in the UK; a US college may not, as below)
- one question: "Can you confirm whether this person holds this award?"
In the US, a college may treat "degrees, honors, and awards received" and dates of attendance as directory information under FERPA, and confirm them without consent unless the student opted out. Some colleges pass these questions to the National Student Clearinghouse, which charges whoever orders the check.
If you're the graduate, being asked to pay for your own check: Hedd's home page says it "is not for use by students or graduates to verify their own awards". Its FAQs add that when an employer or agency requires verification, "it is their responsibility to arrange and pay for the verification request."
Turn over the price tag: what a trap check really costs
FREE A "verification" link you can't trace back to the university's own website
Paid for by whoever made it, and the page won't say who. Start from the university's own website instead. If it's a seller's, it costs you a false yes, with your name on the decision.
FREE Any university in the world, instantly, just type a name
Paid for by nobody you can name. Real services list the universities they cover and ask for identifying details, often with consent. It costs you a guess from the site's own list, possibly about someone else.
FAST An "agent" who will get the official report for you, for a fee
Paid for by you, and not to the official body. China's verification centre, CSSD, warns of people claiming to provide verification and expedited services in its name, "charging high fees". Only the graduate can apply, through CSSD's platform or official provincial agencies. It costs the graduate a fee and their personal details, and leaves you with a report you can't trust.
FREE A reply from the "registrar", sent from webmail or a look-alike domain
Paid for by whoever registered the address. Universities answer from their own domains, or through an official service they name on their own website. It costs you the whole check: whatever the reply says, nobody at the university said it.
When a free check and the registry disagree
Say Candidate A's printed check said yes, and the registry you found yourself has no record. First check you sent the name used at the time and the right year, and ask again. If there is still nothing, the registry wins. Don't confront anyone on the strength of the seller's page.
Keep both answers. In the UK, report the fake verification site to the NCSC, which can investigate and remove scam websites, and tell Hedd through its contact page, which takes reports of bogus institutions and degree fraud.
Elsewhere, tell the university's registry what you were shown: it will want to know its name is being used. Our employers' guide covers what to do if you find a fake.
Follow the money back to the records. A free check is worth exactly as much as the records behind it, and the route tells you whose they are. Came in through the university's own door? Then they are the university's. If they belong to whoever sold the certificate, it is not a check. It is part of the sale.
Sources
- Hedd and Prospects: Degree fraud toolkit for employers: fake verification services
- Hedd: not for graduates' own checks, proof of consent; institution search; FAQs: who pays; Contact us: reporting bogus institutions and degree fraud
- GOV.UK: Check if your university or college can award a degree, with its list of recognised awards
- Gradintel and Parchment: verified digital credentials issued by universities
- US Department of Education: DAPIP
- TEQSA: National Register of Higher Education Providers and NZQA: Find education organisations
- My eQuals: Document verification and FAQs for verifiers: free to receive, owned by its institutions
- OpenCerts: FAQ: what a pass proves, copied files
- US Department of Education: FERPA regulations, 34 CFR Part 99: directory information (99.3, 99.37)
- National Student Clearinghouse: Verify now: participating schools, details required, paid by the requester
- CSSD (Ministry of Education, China): Declaration on Verification Business
- NCSC: Report a scam website
Check it before you trust it. The free tools in the Fake Degree Lab look at a CV, a school's website, a message or a "verification" service and show the warning signs, with links to the official registers.