KUALA LUMPUR: SIJIL Pelajaran Malaysia and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia examination leavers are being targeted by scammers hoping to rake in profit from their pursuit of higher education.
Hiding behind legitimate education institutions, these scammers are luring youths into paying for unaccredited education programmes, which, upon completion, would not be recognised by employers and other higher learning institutions.
The statistics shared by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) with the New Straits Times shed light on the worrying state of the situation.
“We’re noting a rising trend,” said MQA chief executive officer Datuk Professor Dr Rujhan Mustafa.
“From last year to this month (June this year), we’ve received more than 130 reports on violations involving 114 higher education learning institutions,” he said.
Most of these scammers started off as agents entrusted by higher learning institutions to recruit students.
“Over time, they took advantage
of the trust given to them by taking in their own students.
“They went from recruiting to providing their own education programmes. Unrecognised ones, of course,” he said.
Under Section 92 of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency Act 2007, an authorised MQA officer is allowed to carry out search on “the premises of any higher education provider” upon obtaining reasonable cause to believe that a delay in obtaining a search warrant would negatively affect the investigation.
However, this does not deter the scammers from exercising force to protect their interests. In some cases, enforcement officers were stopped by these scammers from entering their premises.
An MQA official, who wished to remain anonymous, shared how aggressive these scammers could be.
“Recently, we were locked inside a building by the staff of an education institute we were investigating,” she said.
Some of these fake “education” providers do not seem to care about the law, much less the agency tasked with enforcing it.
“They did that even after we showed them our authority cards and explained to them the law that allows us to carry out the search,” she said.
“Some even went to the extent of claiming to be us (the agency), distributing fake offer letters with our logo and watermark to the public,” she said.
Rujhan cautioned that the increase in higher education scams could jeopardise youths’ future.
“Enrolling in programmes that are not accredited by MQA could affect a student’s career and academic pursuit.
“Not only would they not be able to apply for education loans and government jobs, they would also not be able to further their education, as their certificates are not recognised by any education bodies.
“In the long run, this gives rise to other problems like fake certificates.
“Students desperate for a job would go for alternatives just to meet the education requirements needed for them to pass the interview,” he said.
To counter this problem, the agency, together with the Higher Education Ministry, has rolled out multiple alternatives to combat education fraud, the most recent being the launching of the Malaysian Qualifications Register mobile application to help public verify the status of the programmes they are enrolling in.
“Despite this, the number of education scams is on the rise. There is indeed, a profound need for stricter enforcement,” Rujhan said.