Education Verification

What gets confirmed

A standard degree verification returns:

• Institution name and whether it is accredited
• Degree type (associate, bachelor's, master's, doctorate) and major
• Dates of attendance and date the degree was awarded
• Sometimes honors, but rarely grades or GPA

High school diplomas and GEDs can also be checked, though they are harder to verify quickly and are often handled by asking the candidate for a copy. The check is one part of a wider background check, usually ordered with employment verification.

How it works and how long it takes

Most US colleges and universities share degree data through a national clearinghouse, so screeners can confirm many degrees within minutes or a day. Where the school does not participate, the screener contacts the registrar, which can take three to ten business days. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) lets schools release directory information such as degrees and dates of attendance, but many registrars still ask for the student's signed consent, so collect it at the start.

International verification typically takes one to four weeks and may need the original diploma, a translation, and a credential evaluation that maps the foreign qualification to a US equivalent.

Diploma mills and fake credentials

Fake degrees come in two forms: forged documents from real schools, and real-looking degrees from unaccredited "diploma mills" that sell credentials for life experience. Red flags include:

• A school with no physical campus or an address that is a mailbox
• Degrees awarded in weeks, or based only on work experience
• Accreditation from bodies not recognized by the US Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation
• Names very close to a well-known university

Check accreditation against the Department of Education's database when a school is unfamiliar. For more detail aimed at recruiters, see our education verification guide for recruiters.

When to verify, and when not to

Verify education when the degree is a real job requirement: licensed professions, finance and audit roles, engineering, healthcare, teaching, and senior leadership roles where a false claim would be a serious integrity problem.

For most hourly, contact center and frontline roles, skip it. If the job does not require a degree, verifying one adds cost and delay without reducing risk, and in a high-volume funnel every extra day between offer and start costs you candidates. Many employers moving to skills-based hiring have dropped degree requirements for these roles entirely, which removes the need to check.

A worked example: a regional bank's operations center hiring 200 processing clerks a year was verifying high school diplomas for every hire, adding an average of four days to the background check. Dropping the diploma check for roles that did not legally require it cut median time from offer to start by three days and saved about $3,000 a year in fees, with no change in early performance.

Legal and fairness notes

When a screening company performs the check, FCRA disclosure, authorization and adverse action steps apply. Degree requirements themselves can be challenged under Title VII if they screen out protected groups at higher rates and are not job-related, a principle set out by the Supreme Court in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971). Outside the US, data protection rules may require specific consent before contacting schools. Rules vary by state and country.

Common mistakes

• Verifying degrees for roles that do not need them.
• Accepting a photo or scan of a diploma as verification. Diplomas are easy to fake; registrar records are not.
• Treating "no record found" as fraud. Name changes, school mergers and closures are common causes. Ask the candidate for a transcript or diploma copy first.
• Waiting for education results before starting other checks. Run them in parallel.