Tuition Fee Fraud

Good morning Luke

I refer to your email of 19 February and, on behalf of the University, I acknowledge receipt and confirm that your request is being dealt with in terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

In terms of the Act, a reply will be sent to you within 20 working days.

Kind Regards

Claire

Claire Barranger-Clark
Information Governance Officer
University of Aberdeen
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/
4th in the UK for Overall Student Satisfaction (NSS 2022)
13th in the UK (The Guardian University Guide 2023)
World Top 160 (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022)
Queen's Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education winner 2017 and 2021

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Hello Luke

Can I clarify what you are looking for?

You have added a UCL link about a form of fraud where the student is the victim of a third party.

In these cases we would not be investigating our students, as they would be victims.

Can you clarify whether you are wanting;

(a) to reframe your question to be about "How many instances of third party fraud are the University aware of in relation to the payment of tuition fees", remove Question 2 and then ask Question 3 as "how many cases related to Chinese students"

(b) are you asking whether a more general question about student fraud, where the student theirselves are investigated e.g. claiming they are a different fee level? For example

Looking forward to hearing from you

Claire

Claire Barranger-Clark
Information Governance Officer
University of Aberdeen
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/
4th in the UK for Overall Student Satisfaction (NSS 2022)
13th in the UK (The Guardian University Guide 2023)
World Top 160 (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022)
Queen's Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education winner 2017 and 2021

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Hello Luke

Thank you for the clarification.

I will send your request to the relevant team for responding to.

We aim to respond in 20 working days.

Kind Regards

Claire

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Dear Luke

Your request has now been considered under the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002, ‘the Act’. Please find your response below.

 1. For every year since 2018; how many instances of third party fraud are
the University aware of in relation to the payment of tuition fees? 
    NONE

How many of these cases related to Chinese students?                 N/A

 2. For each year since 2018, how many students have been investigated for
any form of tuition fee fraud excluding where they have been the
victim of a third party ?

Investigations:

                        2018     0

                        2019     0

                        2020     0

                        2021     1

                        2022     5

                        2023     2

                        2024     1 (current investigation)

Note: some of the individuals may have been victim of a third party i.e.
they may have thought the payment method was legitimate, but none to our
knowledge lost their funds.  We cannot prove how willingly involved each
student was in the suspicious payments received.

What were the outcomes in each case? 

No investigation provided conclusive evidence of fraud so no further
action against the student.

              Of the total number of students investigated since 2018, how
many were of Chinese nationality?

        1 case related to a Chinese student

Should you be dissatisfied with this response, you have the right under
the Act to request a review.  A request for review must be made within 40
working days of the date of this reply. It must include your name and
address for correspondence and specify the request for information and the
grounds for dissatisfaction with the decision. Please send your request
for review to our mailbox, [1][University of Aberdeen request email]. The University will respond
to your request for a review within 20 working days of receipt of your
request.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the University’s internal review,
you have the right to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner
within six months of the date of receipt of the University’s review
notice. Details on how to make an appeal to the Commissioner are
 available at [2]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal. Should you remain
dissatisfied with the Commissioner’s decision, you have a right of appeal
to the Court of Session on a point of law.

Kind Regards

Claire

Claire Barranger-Clark

Information Governance Officer

University of Aberdeen

[3]www.abdn.ac.uk

4^th in the UK for Overall Student Satisfaction (NSS 2022)

13^th in the UK (The Guardian University Guide 2023)

World Top 160 (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022)

Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education winner 2017 and
2021

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