话说前不久，留学圈儿（尤其是英国留学圈儿）发生了一件大事儿：
BBC惊曝英国人才市场虚假学历泛滥成灾！
嗯，换言之，就是咱常说的“野鸡大学”……据说假文凭的卖家甚至还包括NHS医生、护士啥的（突然为腐国的医疗产业深感焦虑）！
BBC 播客《File on 4》节目曝光了涉及数百万英镑的假文凭国际贸易。
File on 4 exposes a multi-million pound global trade in fake diplomas.
一个复杂的在线大学网络出售学历、博士学位和专业资格证书等。部分买家将这些证书用在简历中来求职。
A complex network of online universities sells degrees, doctorates and professional qualifications - for a price. Some of the buyers have gone on to trade on these credentials, including them on their CVs and gaining jobs in public life.
还有些买家购买后会遭到卖家的勒索，除非额外支付巨额金钱，否则就揭发他们购买假文凭的事情。
Others, after making an initial purchase, were blackmailed by the sellers, who threatened to expose them unless they paid out huge additional sums of money.
节目一开始就曝光了一家巴基斯坦的“文凭工厂”、IT公司Axact——号称是全球最大的“野鸡大学”之一，已经售出超20万假文凭。Axact 创建了数百个网站，声称是可以提供一系列学历证明的在线大学。虽然一个学位可能仅售几千美元，但BBC调查发现买家可能会被勒索，有人甚至被敲诈50多万美元。
An investigation into one of the world’s biggest degree mills, a Pakistani company that has sold over 200,000 bogus qualifications. IT company Axact has created hundreds of websites purporting to be online universities offering a range of academic qualifications from degrees to doctorates. However while a degree can cost just a few thousand dollars this BBC investigation has discovered customers are also being blackmailed for buying them and some have paid over more than $500,000.
上文中的degree mill即我们常说的“野鸡大学” ，也可以说diploma mill。Mill在这里表示“大规模制造某种产品的工厂”，也比喻“如工厂般制造产品的机构”。如：The college was nothing more than a diploma mill.
为了调查，BBC记者还亲身体验了一把……
《巴基斯坦国际新闻报》官网：Axact向BBC记者出售假学历
BBC记者Simon Cox在接受The News采访时表示，作为调查的一部分，他向Axact致电咨询，不到10分钟对方就向他提供Nixon University（尼克松大学）的学位，要价是3600美元。
BBC investigative journalists, Simon Cox, told The News in an interview that as part of the investigation, Axact offered him a degree from fake online “Nixon University” costing $3,600 within 10 minutes after the BBC reporter called Axact.
这个所谓的“尼克松大学”，看官网是不是觉得还挺像那么回事儿的？
Simon Cox还说：
他们给我看了学位长啥样，告诉了我一门我应该上的课程。而他们想要的不过是我的信用卡信息，然后就能把文凭快递到我家门口。咨询后他们很执着地不断给我打电话，一心想着从我这儿赚钱。
They showed me what it (degree) would look like. They showed me a course I was supposed to have taken. All they wanted to know was my credit card details and then I could get the degree delivered at my doorstep. They kept calling me and they were very persistent. They were concerned about getting money out of me.
话说难道没人能识破这些假大学么？BBC记者戳穿Axact谎言后得到的“解释”是：他们圆谎称大学真的存在，就在南加州。（They tried to maintain this fiction that they did really exist and that they were in southern California.）
不过这谎话说多了嘛，总有对不上的时候：
第一个人告诉我学校在华盛顿特区，第二个人说在南加州……被戳穿后，他们又说全美都有分校，无论你说啥他们都能见招拆招。
The first person I spoke to said they were in Washington, DC. The second person said they were in southern California. And when I countered them that they were lying, they said we have branches all over America. So they had an answer for everything.
除了尼克松大学，诸如此类的野鸡大学还有布鲁克林帕克大学（Brooklyn Park University ）、哥伦比亚纳大学（Columbiana University)还有巴克利大学（Barkley University）等等。
据悉，仅2015年，Axact在全球共出售假证件21.5万多份，涉及约350家虚假高中和大学，骗取5100万美元。
In 2015, Axact sold more than 215,000 fake qualifications globally, through approximately 350 fictitious high schools and universities, making $51m (£37.5m) that year alone.
更夸张的是，2015年BBC记者还成功帮一条狗买到了一家在线野鸡大学颁发的MBA学位证书……
那么问题来了，为什么尽管多国对此展开了刑事调查，假文凭产业仍旧如此泛滥？院校和公司真的对此足够重视么？
Despite criminal investigations in numerous countries, why is there still a thriving trade in dubious qualifications and are institutions and companies taking the issue seriously enough?
据《纽约时报》2015年报道，Axact公司CEO和高级经理均被逮捕，巴基斯坦有关部门也对此展开调查。高级经理Umair Hamid更于2017年被判处有期徒刑21个月。但对Axact的调查却因巴基斯坦政府贪污腐败而停滞不前。
Following a New York Times expose in 2015, Axact's chief executive was arrested and an investigation launched by the Pakistani authorities. Senior manager Umair Hamid was sentenced to 21 months in a US prison in August 2017 for his part in Axact's fraud. Yet the Pakistani investigation has ground to a halt amid claims of government corruption.
另据英国高等教育学位检验机构（HEDD）CEO杰尼• 罗利的说法，只有20%的英国雇主会对申请人学历进行适当的检查。不过即便如此，大家也不能抱着侥幸心理。毕竟大学远不止是一纸文凭那么简单，它能带给我们的也远不止专业知识和思维模式，还有珍贵的校园情谊~
文章的最后，和小伙伴们一起分享由“留学帝”公众号整理的鉴别野鸡大学的小妙招：
1. 拼写和学校名称的顺序很重要
上面提到的哥伦比亚纳大学就是一个典型。它的英文名Columbiana University和世界著名的哥伦比亚大学Columbia University只有两个字母之差。
简直跟传说中“六仐核桃”的套路一样一样的……
至于为什么说学校名称的顺序也很重要呢，因为英国大部分大学的名称都是The University of XXXX。
但是在日常生活中为了方便，我们会直接说XXXX University。
所以骗子就会钻了这个空子，这也是为什么Axact的一些买家甚至都没有意识到自己买的是野鸡大学的假文凭...
2. 看域名
就英国大学来说，一般情况下，正经大学的网站都应该是以ac.uk结尾的，而野鸡大学是无法申请到以ac.uk结尾的网址。
所以看到明明应该是学校官网，但是却以com, ac或者是edu这类结尾的话，就需要大家多留心一下了。
3. 官方搜索功能
为了方便大家能查询自己感兴趣的英国大学是否颁发官方认可的学位证书，英国高等教育学位检验机构（HEDD）有一个专门的搜索页面。
输入学校名后如果没有出现相关结果，就说明这个大学其实是个坑。
千言万语一句话，出国留学套路多，小伙伴们一定要擦亮眼睛躲开骗局啊！
在英国也可以，轻轻松松吃到卤制品
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