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College Protects Credibility of Members’ Credentials

The College’s trained staff and top-notch technology are standing guard against fraudulent documents.

The Membership Records Unit processes about 220,000 documents a year, including applications, transcripts, letters of good standing, criminal record checks, language proficiency documents and requests for changes to member information. Most of the documents are legitimate but occasionally people try to slip through fraudulent credentials.

"We do our research, and we do catch the isolated cases where people try to buy degrees and transcripts from diploma mills," says Anna Di Rezze, manager of Membership Records. "The College is committed to protecting the public. It puts a high priority on establishing detailed and high-quality authentication procedures.

"The implementation of these procedures coupled with the hard work of highly trained and dedicated staff mean we’ve been able to catch a number of potentially fraudulent documents."

Staff review documents to verify authenticity. They check typeface, quality of paper, envelopes and validity of institutions. The College randomly conducts thorough audits of documents, sending copies of documents back to the issuing institution for verification.

During one such audit, Central Michigan University Registrar Karen Hutslar commended the College for checking documents. "It is something we wish more people would do," she wrote in a letter confirming the accuracy of transcripts sent for verification.

A recent audit caught an applicant submitting a fraudulent letter of good standing. Membership records staff have caught applicants submitting false documents in support of an application and members trying to misrepresent their academic and professional qualifications.

"We’re here to protect the credibility of all our members’ credentials," Di Rezze says. "The use of fraudulent credentials by one teacher undermines the public’s confidence in other teachers’ qualifications. Our job is to ensure the teacher standing at the front of the classroom is truly qualified."

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Ontario College of Teachers
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