Kazakhstan is actively combating diploma forgery: to date, 46 fake documents and 20 websites involved in their illegal production have been identified, reports infohub.kz.
The Ministry of Science and Higher Education said that recently, information about fake diplomas has been increasingly appearing online. To verify the authenticity of documents, the ministry has created a database of diplomas issued since 1991.
As explained by the ministry, diplomas are generated through a special module that assigns unique numbers and QR codes. Access to the system is only available to officially responsible university staff registered in the module. Diplomas are generated based on data about students in the information system "Unified Platform of Higher Education" (UPHE). If there is no information about a student in the UPHE, it is impossible to generate a diploma number.
It is noted that documents of education of their own format that do not contain a generated unique number and QR code are considered invalid. "In parallel, universities continue to digitize data, and employers can verify the authenticity of a diploma through a special service: https://epvo.kz. The electronic version of the diploma is also available in the e-government application ('Digital Documents')," the ministry added.
Additionally, Kazakhstan is constantly monitoring and suppressing the production and sale of fake education documents. Materials on identified cases have been transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Culture and Information.
According to Article 385 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, forgery or use of forged documents entails a fine, correctional labor, or restriction or imprisonment for up to 2 years.