Universities and Colleges Admissions Service

HC Deb 15 June 2004 vol 422 cc928-30W

Mr. Yeo

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what checks are made by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service to ensure that applications to university are not bogus. [178211]

Alan Johnson

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is the central agency through which applications for places at universities and colleges in the UK are processed. The Verification Unit was established in 1996 in order to raise awareness of fraud within its constituent institutions and to introduce measures to combat fraud in the applications processing system. The Verification Unit is committed to a policy of ensuring that applications received through the UCAS, the Social Work Admissions System (SWAS), the Nursing Midwifery Admissions Service (NMAS) and the Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR) are from genuine applicants seeking places in higher education.

Higher education institutions will also undertake their own verification checks before applicants are allowed to enrol.