Unfortunately, it is not difficult to acquire counterfeit documents of any complexity, so the question of the authenticity of the information provided is always relevant. To get a high-paying job, they falsify educational documents, especially higher education. The opportunity to check the fact of receipt of a diploma, including by its number, is provided through special information sites on the Internet. Let's analyze this and other methods of verifying the authenticity of documents on higher and special education below.

Methods for checking educational documents for authenticity

When hiring a new employee for a vacancy that requires special knowledge and skills, the employer will necessarily require information about the availability of appropriate education. A mandatory condition for employment in government agencies is to verify the authenticity of all documents. There are several completely legal and easily accessible ways to establish the authenticity of an education diploma, both with and without the consent of the diploma holder.

Among the main ways to verify the authenticity of a diploma, as a state form, are:

• external compliance with all established standards;
• requesting confirmation of the issuance of the relevant diploma from the educational institution that issued it;
• authentication in a special Rosobrnadzor database, accessed via the Internet.

There are other ways to obtain confirmation of completion of training at a specific educational institution and obtain a diploma or certificate of education. Alternative authentication methods include, for example, social networks that contain information about universities and study dates. In this case, you should remember that in the profile of social networks, all information regarding training is entered by the account owner independently, therefore, this method is not reliable.

A detailed questioning of the diploma holder about the educational institution and teachers will allow, after clarification, to draw a conclusion about the completion of training. This method is relevant if little time has passed since graduation.

Verifying the authenticity of a diploma by external features

All education diplomas, like other state documents, have a certain degree of protection and distinctive features. After analyzing the external characteristics, you can make a preliminary conclusion about its authenticity or counterfeit.

The original authentic diploma must have the following features:

• the presence of watermarks containing the abbreviation “RF”;
• when exposed to ultraviolet light, the coat of arms of Russia should appear, on either side of which there are the merging inscriptions “Russia” and “Diploma”, and you can also find peculiar threads across the entire surface;
• Using a magnifying glass, you can read the words written in 0.5 mm font to the right of the inscription “Diploma”. and making up the inscription “Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation”.

Attention! When photocopying a genuine diploma of education, the inscription “Copy” will appear on the copy, which is not visible to the naked eye on the form itself.

At the same time, the presence of all the above security elements is not proof of the authenticity of the diploma, but only indicates that the form is original. In practice, there are cases of large-scale theft of blank diploma forms from educational institutions. Despite the fact that in such cases, educational institutions are required to post information about the invalidation of such forms, many employers do not pay attention to this.

Checking your diploma for authenticity via the Internet

All information about obtaining an education, any qualification or training in accordance with the Federal Law dated December 29, 2012 No. 247-FZ and Government Decree No. 729 dated August 26, 20133 is entered into a specially created federal register. The main purpose of maintaining such a register is to suppress the activities of the market for fake diplomas and other government educational documents, as well as to consolidate information about all previously issued diplomas.

Access to this database for checking diplomas is open to everyone; there is no need to register or gain access through specialized bodies. When checking authenticity, you only need to indicate the required information, marked with a red asterisk and contained in the diploma itself:

If the required data does not allow you to find the required document, then you should use the advanced search, which involves additionally entering the name of the document, its registration number, as well as the assigned qualifications and specialty.

After moving the unlock slider, information about the availability of a diploma with the specified parameters in the database should appear.

Attention! The Rosobrnadzor database is at the stage of developing and entering all information about issued diplomas. The absence of data corresponding to the request is not evidence of document forgery.

If information is missing, you can send a request on the website to enter information about the issued diploma; registration is required for this. Project specialists will clarify the information at the specified university and, after confirmation, add the information to the register.

In addition to the federal register containing information about documents on higher education, you can also check the authenticity of a diploma on the website of the educational organization that issued it. The websites of large universities in the country contain special applications that allow you to establish the authenticity of diplomas issued to their graduates.

In conclusion, we note that the surest way to establish the authenticity of educational documents is to send a request to the institution that issued it. Although any person can make such a request, the university administration is not obliged to respond to a request received from third parties. Therefore, if there are reasons to suspect that the documents provided are forged, the employer may impose on the employee the obligation to provide a certificate from an educational institution confirming the fact that a particular education document was issued.

Federal Register of Diplomas: video

When hiring a new employee, it would be useful to check his documents, even if by all criteria he is an ideal candidate. Since the competition in the labor market is quite intense, applicants strive to stand out at any cost, and most often - with a brilliant certificate of graduation from a university. How to check the authenticity of a diploma? What to look for? What to do with a “fake” candidate?

How to check the authenticity of a higher education diploma: basic methods

One of the easiest and most effective ways to verify a document is to send a request to the higher education institution that issued it. Unfortunately, universities are not always ready to provide this kind of information and often refuse requests, citing the fact that they cannot disclose. In this case, there is no other way out than to verify the authenticity of the candidate’s diploma by writing an official request to the educational institution. The answer will have to wait about a week, but a reliable result is guaranteed. The only thing that complicates this method of document verification is that the potential employee must give written consent to this. In addition, the candidate has the right to know why the employer needed such information. Consent on paper, signed by the employee’s hand, is equivalent to a digital electronic signature or other analogues of a handwritten signature provided for by federal laws and regulations.

How to check the authenticity of a diploma if the candidate refuses to give his consent? It turns out that there is no such possibility, since information about the education of a potential employee is personal data, and its disclosure without his permission is illegal. In this case, you can contact the university and ask to confirm that such a higher education diploma was issued, without specifying who exactly. To obtain such information, it is not necessary to obtain the employee’s consent.

You can also check whether the university diploma provided by the applicant is “fake” by searching for his fellow students on social networks such as Odnoklassniki or VKontakte. This is not a very reliable option for obtaining reliable information, but still, in the absence of others, it can be useful.

In the near future, the authenticity of documents, in particular higher education diplomas, will be able to be checked in an electronic database, the creation of which is already underway by order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. There are known facts that the authenticity of the diplomas of some people who ran for positions in parliament was denied when contacting the university. Therefore, there is hope that it will help uncover many deceptions.

There is another facet of confirming the authenticity of such documents: many fake diplomas were purchased at the educational institution itself, and therefore they are properly registered. Therefore, additional testing of the candidate for knowledge and professional suitability will never hurt.

Results

There are several ways to verify a higher education diploma. But in any case, even if the authenticity is not confirmed by the university, it is worth taking a closer look at the candidate and making a decision not only on the basis of this data. It often happens that a person without a diploma does a much better job than a “red” university graduate. Recommendations from previous employers and a security check for past offenses will help here.

Who can check the authenticity of a diploma and why? This is usually done by employers who, for one reason or another, are not sure that the applicant’s diploma for the position is real. Or when the knowledge of an employee already engaged in labor activity clearly does not correspond to the education received. Information about the education of any person is considered personal data, so verifying it can be quite difficult. We will talk about official and unofficial ways to verify a diploma, as well as prospects in this area below.

In what cases is the employer obliged to check the authenticity of a diploma? There are not many such cases. Diplomas of applicants applying for positions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for work in state security agencies, and for work in the space and military industries undergo a mandatory verification procedure.

In other cases, the decision whether to check the diploma of an applicant for a position or not is made by the head of the enterprise.

How to check the authenticity of a diploma?
According to labor legislation, and specifically, Article 3 of Article 86 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, all personal information about oneself at the place of work is provided by the employee or applicant for the position. Another option is to obtain data from a third party, but only with the employee’s consent. Moreover, this consent must be provided in writing.

By law, the employer is obliged to inform the employee where, how and for what purpose he is going to check his personal data. And also about what actions will be taken in case of refusal to give written consent to the inspection.

If the employer is going to strictly follow the letter of the law, then he has two official ways to verify the authenticity of the diploma.

1. An official request to law enforcement agencies. This method is usually used in cases where the employer is confident that the diploma is forged and wants to prove it so that the applicant or employee suffers the appropriate punishment. In this case, evidence of forgery will be an expert’s opinion and a certificate from the university confirming that the applicant did not study with them. At the request of law enforcement agencies, a certificate from the university is obtained quickly and smoothly. Punishment for using counterfeit documents: a large fine, correctional labor or arrest for up to 6 months.
   
2. First, the entire form requests the employee’s written consent to check his personal data, in particular, his diploma. If the employee refuses to give such consent, this may already serve as confirmation of the assumption of forgery. In this case, the employer can act in the first way by sending an application to the relevant authorities.
   

If consent is received, then the employer draws up a request in accordance with the established form (official form, reason for verification, signature of the diploma holder, seal and signature of the employer) and sends it to the educational institution where the diploma was received. If the university has been dissolved, the request is sent to its legal successor.

It should be noted that verification through a request to the university does not always guarantee that the employer will know the real state of affairs. Many companies that sell fake diplomas have gone so far in their activities that they order diplomas directly from universities. Therefore, such educational documents are actually registered in the archives. In this case, it will be very difficult to prove that the diploma is fake.

Other ways to verify the authenticity of a diploma:

• Through social networks. Communities such as Odnoklassniki or VKontakte have extensive and detailed databases of educational institutions in our country and around the world. If the last name and first name, university and year of graduation are known, you can obtain information about whether such a person actually studied at this educational institution.
  
• In principle, anyone can send a request to a university, indicating the diploma number and asking to confirm its authenticity, even without using official forms and seals. But in this case, the university may refuse, considering the request unlawful.
  
• Requests from law enforcement agencies are satisfied in one hundred percent of cases, and some employers take advantage of this without the intention of opening a criminal case. But this is an unofficial method and to implement it you need to have friends in the police.
  
• If the request to confirm the authenticity of the diploma comes from the owner himself, then it is guaranteed to be satisfied. Therefore, an applicant or employee who is confident that he is right, but is suspected of forgery, can send a request to the university himself or, if possible, visit the educational institution and obtain the appropriate certificate from the archives.
  
• A new service has appeared on the websites of some educational institutions: after entering the diploma number, you can obtain information about the educational activities of a former student. This includes coursework and diploma titles, grades, etc. If the diploma is fake, then this information will not be detected.
  

Electronic database of diplomas of higher educational institutions

This project has been mature for a long time and work on it is now being carried out quite actively. Project name: “Unified register of university graduates.” It is being developed by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with the project, the following information will be included in the register:

• Last name, first name and patronymic of the graduate
  
• His passport details
  
• University code according to the All-Russian Classifier
  
• Name of the university
  
• Year of ending
  
• Specialization
  
• Diploma details: series, number, date of issue
  

A similar register already exists; it has been maintained by the National Accreditation Agency in Education since 2005, but only administrative structures now have access to it.

Law enforcement agencies report that there are thousands of organizations in Russia that sell fake diplomas. And hundreds of thousands of citizens work with such diplomas. Perhaps, after the creation of a single register, similar to which exists in all developed countries, this number will decrease.

The documents provided by the candidate for a vacant position play an important role: they confirm the required level of education, qualifications, and experience. However, sometimes future employees provide false documents. How can an employer check the authenticity of documents? What to do if false documents are discovered after applying for a job? In this article, we will focus on verifying the authenticity of an education document.

Documents to be presented when applying for a job

Article 65 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation establishes a list of documents presented when concluding an employment contract by a person applying for work:

— passport or other identity document;

— work record book, with the exception of cases when an employment contract is concluded for the first time or the employee starts working on a part-time basis;

— insurance certificate of state pension insurance;

- military registration documents - for those liable for military service and persons subject to conscription for military service;

- a document on education and (or) qualifications or the presence of special knowledge - when applying for a job that requires special knowledge or special training;

- a certificate of the presence (absence) of a criminal record and (or) the fact of criminal prosecution or the termination of criminal prosecution on rehabilitative grounds - when applying for a job related to an activity that, in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, other federal law, persons are not allowed to carry out, have or have had a criminal record, are or have been subject to criminal prosecution.

In some cases, taking into account the specifics of the work, regulations may provide for the need to present additional documents when concluding an employment contract. Providing documents other than those mentioned in Art. 65 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation may also be provided for by other norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, federal laws, decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation. For example, when employing a foreigner, you may need a work permit, and to formalize labor relations with workers who will have to deal with food, a medical book.

Checking your education diploma

So, the employee provided falsified documents. Falsification can be done in different ways - by replacing sheets (detected visually), affixing fake seals and stamps, re-taping or replacing photographs, etc. Sometimes candidates add information that is necessary for applying for a job, that is, they independently enter new information into the free space in the document. It is very important not to miss a fake diploma of education from teachers and medical workers, because the former work with children, and the latter treat (and if the diploma is fake, they rather “mutilate”) people.

note! Samples and descriptions of diplomas of education and appendices thereto are approved by orders of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated July 4, 2013 N 531, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation dated September 18, 2012 N 191n, dated September 18, 2012 N 190n and other regulations.

It is no secret that a diploma of almost any education can be bought, as they say, in a subway crossing. Therefore, most often employees falsify educational diplomas.

Why is an education document important? Almost any qualification description indicates a certain level of education for occupying a particular position, so having a diploma is simply necessary, and a diploma with excellent grades gives an advantage over other candidates. Moreover, it is this document that confirms the employee’s qualifications, allowing him to perform a specific job.

There are many ways to falsify an education document. Firstly, it is possible to purchase genuine certificates of diplomas (inserts with grades, etc.) and enter deliberately false information into them. Secondly, in an authentic university diploma issued several years ago to one of the graduates, it is possible to enter inaccurate information through erasures and additions (for example, replacing letters in the last name or first name). Thirdly, the form of the education document itself may be fake.

So, first of all, inspect the diploma. Pay attention to the presence of grammatical errors, signs of erasure, additions, reprinting in the document, the correspondence of the name of the educational institution and its seal. If the letterhead or seal of an educational institution on a diploma raises doubts about its authenticity, and the employee has been hired for a position that requires a higher education, it is better to check the diploma. There are two ways to do this.

1. Sending a request to the educational organization that issued the document. This is the easiest way to verify your diploma. Such a request is sent on the organization's letterhead, indicating the reason for the request. But one nuance must be taken into account: it is better that such a request contains the consent of the employee whose authenticity of the document is being verified. For what? The fact is that information about education relates to personal data (personal data is any information relating directly or indirectly to a specific or identifiable individual). Based on Art. 86 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, all personal data of the employee should be obtained from him. If such data can only be obtained from a third party (in our case, an educational organization), the employee must be notified about this in advance and written consent must be obtained from him. Moreover, the employer must inform the employee about the purposes, intended sources and methods of obtaining personal data, as well as the nature of the personal data to be obtained and the consequences of the employee’s refusal to give written consent to receive it. Therefore, if the organization’s request contains the employee’s written consent and signature, the educational organization will have no reason to refuse to provide information. Since each state diploma has its own unique number, information about which is stored in the archives of the educational institution, it is not at all difficult to confirm the authenticity and date of issue of a specific diploma.

For your information. The method of verification through social networks has become very common. Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte have very large databases of higher educational institutions around the world. Knowing the specialty, year of graduation of the student and the name of the university, you can easily find classmates of a suspicious applicant. And they can tell you a lot of interesting things...

2. Contacting law enforcement agencies. To do this, a corresponding application is submitted to the prosecutor's office. The basis for confirming the authenticity or falsification of a document is an expert opinion and a certificate from the university, provided at the request of law enforcement agencies.

Please note that the use of a knowingly forged document, if identified by law enforcement agencies, may result in criminal liability for the employee. In particular, Art. 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for the following types of punishments:

- a fine of up to 80,000 rubles. or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to six months;

— compulsory work for up to 480 hours;

— corrective labor for up to two years;

- arrest for up to six months.

Sometimes employees provide a document about education received abroad. What should an employer do in this case? Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 02/04/2013 N 62 approved the administrative regulations for the provision by Rosobrnadzor of the state service for the recognition of documents from foreign countries on the level of education and (or) qualifications on the territory of the Russian Federation. Based on this document, Rosobrnadzor carries out:

a) issuance of a certificate of recognition of a document of a foreign state on the level of education and (or) qualifications on the territory of the Russian Federation with the provision of its holder with the same academic and (or) professional rights that holders of the corresponding state-issued documents on the level of education and (or) qualifications in Russia;

b) issuance of a certificate of recognition of a document of a foreign state on the level of education and (or) qualifications on the territory of the Russian Federation as a document confirming the period of study in an educational program of a certain level (certificate of study at an educational institution), with the provision of academic rights to continue studying in the educational program of this level;

c) issuance of a duplicate certificate of recognition of a document of a foreign state on the level of education and (or) qualifications in the territory of the Russian Federation.

If the employee cannot provide such evidence, it means that the education document either has not undergone the confirmation procedure in the Russian Federation or is not recognized as an education document in the Russian Federation; accordingly, the employee cannot work in a position for which higher education is mandatory.

Consequences of identifying forged documents

The Labor Code provides a special basis for termination of employment relations in the case where an employee, when applying for a job and registering an employment relationship, provided a falsified document. In particular, clause 11, part 1, art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation provides that an employment contract is terminated due to a violation of the rules for its conclusion established by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation or other federal law, if violation of these rules excludes the possibility of continuing work and the employee cannot be transferred with his written consent to another job available to the employer.

For example, you cannot dismiss under clause 11, part 1, art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an accountant who presented a false diploma in the specialty "technician", since his job responsibilities do not intersect with those indicated in the qualification characteristics for the specialty named in the diploma.

As follows from the explanations contained in paragraph 51 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation dated March 17, 2004 N 2 “On the application by the courts of the Russian Federation of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation”, it is necessary to take into account that if the rules for concluding an employment contract were violated through the fault of the employee himself as a result of his submission false documents, then the employment contract with such an employee is terminated under clause 11, part 1, art. 81 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

If an institution has received evidence of the falsity of an education document (a certificate from a university, law enforcement agencies, etc.), this document is one of those that must be presented when applying for a job and is important for the work itself, the first step is to notify the report a note from the head of the organization to resolve the issue of the possibility of continuing work by the owner of the fake document.

If management has decided to terminate the employment contract, it is necessary to correctly fill out the dismissal order (in the line “Grounds (document, number, date)” indicate the details of the document confirming the falsification of the document) and make an entry in the work book. In addition, other documents related to the dismissal are drawn up, a personal card, a settlement note, and other procedures are carried out - you need to pay all amounts due to the employee, issue a certificate of earnings for the last two years, etc.

Check educational diplomas in a unified register. It started running back in 2013. All accredited educational institutions enter information about issued diplomas there, and Rosobrnadzor stores it and issues it upon request.

In theory, you can also check your diploma through the website. But it didn’t work out for us, so we don’t recommend it to anyone. Apparently, the register on the website is incomplete. It is safer to send a written request to Rosobrnadzor and wait a month for a response.

Who does this concern?

This applies to everyone who has completed their studies. If the employer has doubts about the diploma, you can invite him to check the data in the common database. If he wants to check through the site, you should dissuade him: this check will not yield anything. You can also make a request to Rosobrnadzor yourself and attach the answer to your diploma in advance before an interview or applying for a job.

This applies to employers. A personnel officer, accountant or director can verify the authenticity of the diploma of any candidate or existing employee. If the vacancy is responsible or there are doubts about qualifications, it is better to make a request and find out whether the person really studied at this university and successfully graduated from it.

We write not only about how to check documents, but also about how to read contracts, make money on unusual things and apply for tax deductions.