How I almost obtained a fake PhD

By Charo Fondo

The expose by The Standard on Kenyans who obtained fake degrees was part of a wider scandal in the US.

It involved revelations about American policemen, firemen and others who had literally “bought” degrees and used them to secure promotions.

Not all who are involved had planned to commit the felony

Indeed, those in Kenya are more likely to be victims rather than fraudsters.

I think my own experience will serve to illustrate how easy it is to be taken in by what would seem to be an authentic American educational institution.

It all started with an advertisement I saw (well over 10 years ago) in a highly reputable American weekly newsmagazine. The advert invited me to use my “life experience” to obtain the academic qualifications I “deserved”.

Consultancy

At that time, I ran a small consultancy that specialised in preparing project proposals for local investors who wanted long-term loans. My part-time associates were an economist who did most of the real work, and an accountant who drew up the projected accounts and other mathematical essentials for the business.

I just wrote up the supporting narrative of why this was a sound investment, and deserving of every last shilling the financier could lend that investor.

But as it was I who brought in the work—and they both had fulltime jobs elsewhere-—I was effectively their boss, and usually took credit for any documents we produced.

I had for some time been convinced that if I had an MBA, I could attract a lot more business. But what I was really interested in was what I had learned was called “Development Theory”.

A friend who recently returned from the UK had persuaded me that if I could gain some sort of qualification in this field, it would open up the doors to limitless opportunities in consulting for global NGOs, foreign diplomatic missions, and other such large organisations known to pay huge sums for consultancy services.

So I looked at that advert with more than casual interest: here, it seemed, was a potential means for acquiring the much-longed-for academic qualification without too much expense or the dislocating effects of having to take study leave.

And so a correspondence began between me and the institution.

All this happened in the days before the Internet was in common use in Kenya.

Therefore, I was unable to Google search about this place and confirm if indeed it was as good as it sounded.

My problems began with the very first letter I received from them. The physical address given was of an office block in Hawaii. That seemed to me rather odd for what I had imagined was a bona fide university with a sprawling campus.

Then there was the text of their letter to me. It was dedicated to persuading me that “accreditation” was a great hoax, and that what really counted in life was “experience” which at the end of the day was the only real foundation for success.

Academic credentials

This institution was dedicated to ensuring that people like me would benefit by having our “life-experience” transformed into “personal validation academic credentials”.

Particular emphasis was given to the fact that this university had neither sought nor received accreditation from any US body legally constituted to grant such accreditation.

Nonetheless, they were willing to offer me something which no accredited college could offer: a cash-back guarantee if my career did not take off within a year of my receiving their award of a degree.

Also causing alarm was that this university was—according to its letterhead—registered with the US Department of Commerce rather than the Department of Education.

But I ignored my doubts and sent, as they had requested, a comprehensive CV listing all the project proposals I had ever written and sent this quite impressive list to them, with a query as to how far my efforts had taken me down the road to a “Masters in Development Theory”.

The reply cured me of any illusions I may have had that I was dealing with a “bona fide” institution. Their response was that although I was eminently qualified to receive a “Masters in Development Theory” on the basis of my “life-experience” as outlined in my CV (provided I sent them documentary proofs and paid them a certain specified sum for the “certificate”) I might be interested to know that, for double that specified sum, they would willingly award me a PhD—a “Doctor of Development Theory” based purely on my very impressive “life-experience”.

I knew enough of what a PhD was —and what studies for a PhD involved—to realise that there was nothing this “university” could offer me that was worth having.

Making it even clearer that it was all a scam, the letter was mailed to me from a small Eastern European country, which apparently was the base for their “International Students Centre”. When I did not reply at all to the letter from Eastern Europe, I got a final letter about six months later offering me a substantial discount if I made prompt payment for my PhD—this letter came from the Philippines.

Fake qualifications

The point to note though is that if whoever was behind this scam had not overplayed their hand by offering me a fake PhD, I would certainly have had no trouble in believing that I deserved that “Masters in Development” studies which they were so keen to sell to me.

And I might, therefore, very easily now have been on that list of Kenyans alleged to have committed a fraud by presenting fake qualifications, when in fact I would have been the victim of a fraud, not the perpetrator of one.

—The writer is a commentator on current affairs