03 March 2020 
Ashley Shelbrooke, HEPA and Project Specialist
Members are being invited to complete a survey which is being undertaken by Sue Owen, an MSc student from the University of Portsmouth studying Counter Fraud and Counter Corruption who has 20 years’ experience working in the Higher Education sector. Sue’s primary area of interest is the sector’s resilience to fraud and error and whether there are opportunities for universities to make cost savings through greater measurement and management of fraud and error.
In order to assess resilience, Sue is conducting a short survey which considers counter fraud strategy, culture, risks and costs, actions and results; please complete the survey via this link:
https://portsmouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/counter-fraud-in-the-uk-higher-education-sector
Thanks to everybody who has got in touch to express their interest in being involved in the counter-fraud working group. The group is planning its activities for the coming year under the new leadership of Andy McGoff of Edinburgh Napier University, so please do get in touch with Ashley if you would like to join the group or have any thoughts on how the sector can be working together to tackle fraud.
Colleagues have shared several useful updates on the fraud discussion boards of late which are worth familiarising yourself with:
An academic was contacted by an individual purporting to be from an international conference team, advising the accommodation element of a conference required payment by credit card over the phone; upon checking with the conference organisers this was found to be a fraud attempt. It appears fraudsters may be trawling academic conference sites and targeting academics who are listed as being in attendance; they then contact the academic and ask for a payment to be made by card.
Tuition fee fraud continues. A number of resources are available to you through the discussion board thread, and WPM are hosting a Tuition Fee Fraud Summit on 25 March in Manchester, with registration available to members via this booking link.
