Swedish hands tied over bogus degrees

A legal loophole means that lecturers employed by Swedish universities who are found to have suspect qualifications cannot be sacked.

Erik Johansson, an evaluator of foreign qualifications at Sweden's National Agency of Higher Education, said: "I know of a few cases concerning employees in academia, including lecturers, who have credentials from bogus universities. This is not illegal in Sweden at present but we're hoping the law will eventually change like in Oregon in the US, where those who use bogus qualifications to obtain work can be fined or risk imprisonment."

The issue erupted with the case of a lecturer who had received his degree from Clayton University in Missouri. Clayton is not recognised by the Swedish national agency or the US authorities. By the time this came to light, the lecturer had been employed by Mid Sweden University for 11 years.

The lecturer had submitted work towards his doctoral qualification, instead of just buying a degree certificate, although it has no academic worth.

The university is unable to sack the lecturer because he is protected by Swedish employment law, but it has banned him from using the title "Dr" and is assessing whether he is qualified to teach.

"Bogus qualifications are a growing problem because of the web," Mr Johansson said. "If it says you have a PhD on your CV and you have a certificate to prove it and appear quite respectable at an interview, people trust you."

The agency says universities must ascertain the worth of foreign degrees before employing academics who hold them.