Temat: The Fraud Curve: White-Collar Crime in Higher Education

The Fraud Curve: White-Collar Crime in Higher Education

Unfortunately, higher education institutions are just as vulnerable to fraud as other organizations. You know that professor spouting off differential equations or philosophical theory? He might be a mentor but he might also have a darker, unethical side. At that moment standing in front of his lecture hall, he could be formulating a devious plan to commit fraud. But fraud doesn't just occur among faculty.

Cases of Higher Education Fraud
Some cases of fraud in academia are similar to those found in any other organization. Consider some other scenarios:

Deans and chairpersons create phony positions (e.g., "assistant dean for retention") and hire friends and relatives into them.

Instructors order desk copies of books from publishers under the guise of considering them for adoption as a textbook, then turn around and sell them online. Professors can make several hundred dollars per month in this scheme.

Faculty members develop software and other products through their university-sponsored research funds, and then market or sell the products through their own private companies.

Staffers engage in consulting work on the side but use university labs and facilities for the jobs or assign the work to students as term projects.

Foreign-born faculty issue admissions to relatives to come to the U.S. for graduate studies, and offer them assistantships and tuition waivers over other more qualified students without revealing their relation to them.

Professors send the same paper abstract to various conferences in their native countries just to have paid trips back home.

Department heads use department funds to purchase goods and services for their personal use.

Fraud can also extend to athletic departments in colleges and universities. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has enforced stricter policies on athletes in colleges. The purpose of these policies is to encourage athletes to perform well in classrooms for eligibility and maintaining scholarships.

In May 2011, five medical school professors at Stanford University were disciplined for breaching the school's conflict of interest policy. The faculty members were being paid to give promotional speeches on behalf of drug makers. Stanford University's honorable reputation took a blow as it endured an investigation and was scrutinized for not enforcing and effectively communicating its policies.

Fraud Prevention
Institutions of higher education can take preventive measures to reduce the instances of fraud. Most higher education systems employ a hotline to report suspicious behavior. This perception of detection in itself might be significant enough to deter fraudulent behavior.

The college or university can reduce its susceptibility to fraud by having clearly written policies and procedures regarding ethics, fraud, and abuse.

Training campus employees on what constitutes fraud is an effective prevention measure for colleges and universities. Live training by experts combined with online learning teaches staff important fraud prevention and detection methods.

The prevalence of fraud at the research level in higher education demonstrates that there should be an oversight team assembled specifically for this area.

The implementation of anti-fraud controls is one of the most effective methods to deter fraud from occurring in any organization, including academia. Rather than risk damaging the college's or university's reputation, these prevention methods can be a proactive approach to save the embarrassment of publicizing instances of fraud.

Yasmin Vazquez Full text: [r]https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Fraud-Curve-WhiteCollar... [/r]