How to verify a candidate's degree and education credentials

To verify a candidate's degree, get their consent, then confirm the degree, major and award date with the school itself, usually through the National Student Clearinghouse's DegreeVerify service (which says it covers 96% of US four-year degrees) or, if the school does not take part, by contacting the registrar's office you found independently. Check that the school is accredited by an agency the US Department of Education recognizes, and for foreign degrees use a credential evaluation service. A diploma image, a LinkedIn profile or a resume line is a claim, not a verification. Facts below are as of October 2026.

This page covers degrees, diplomas and transcripts. For past employers, see how to verify employment history; for nursing, medical and other licenses, see professional license verification for recruiters.

What can you verify about a degree, and what can't you?

Decide what the role needs before you start, and verify the same things for every finalist. If the job posting does not require a degree, verifying one mostly creates a way to reject someone for a reason that has nothing to do with the work.

Do you need the candidate's consent to verify a degree?

Get it anyway, for two reasons: the school may need it, and the law may require it if someone else does the checking.

• What the school can share without consent. The FERPA regulations define directory information to include a student's major field of study, dates of attendance, and "degrees, honors, and awards received". Under 34 CFR 99.37, a school may disclose directory information after giving notice and a chance to opt out, and must keep honoring an opt-out a former student made while enrolled. So a degree check can come back "unable to confirm" simply because the candidate opted out years ago.
• What needs written consent. Anything else from the education record, such as grades, needs the student's signed and dated written consent that names the records, the purpose and who receives them.
• When a screening company does the check. The FTC's guide to background checks lists education among the background information employers seek and says you must get the applicant's written permission and give notice "in a stand-alone format" that "can't be in an employment application". The FCRA background check process page has the full sequence.

How do you verify a US degree, step by step?

1. Collect the details. The school's full name and campus, the degree and major, the month and year awarded, and the name the candidate used while enrolled. Name changes are the most common reason a genuine degree fails to match.
2. Check the school is accredited. Search the Department of Education's Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP) and CHEA's institution search. This takes two minutes and catches most diploma mills before you spend money on a verification.
3. Run the verification. The National Student Clearinghouse's verification services include DegreeVerify for college degrees and DiplomaVerify for high school diplomas; the Clearinghouse says its coverage is 96% of US four-year postsecondary degrees and that results are immediate for participating schools. It is a paid service, with discounted rates for account holders, and the Clearinghouse says background screeners use it as well.
4. If the school is not covered, go to the registrar. Find the registrar's office on the school's official website yourself, never from contact details the candidate supplies, and ask it to confirm the degree, major and date. Some registrars send all third parties to the Clearinghouse instead; Stony Brook University's registrar, for example, says employers and background screening agencies must verify through it. Ask what the process is.
5. Ask for an official transcript only if grades matter. The candidate asks the school to send it directly to you. A transcript that arrives as an attachment from the candidate is a copy, not an official record.
6. Record what you did. Method, date, what was confirmed, and by whom.

For a school that has closed, the state agency that licensed it may hold the records, but coverage is patchy: Connecticut's Office of Higher Education, for example, holds records for certain closed private career schools but not for closed colleges or universities. Start with the higher education agency in the state where the school operated.

How do you spot a diploma mill degree?

The Department of Education's page on diploma mills and accreditation makes three points worth knowing before you judge a school:

• Its database is a "positive list" of institutions accredited by agencies the Secretary of Education recognizes. It does not include schools that choose not to seek accreditation but may still provide a quality education, so it is "simply one source of information".
• "Any institution can claim to be accredited." An accrediting agency the Department does not recognize "should be viewed with caution until its reputation can be determined".
• The federal Office of Personnel Management has made clear that degrees from diploma mills will not be accepted for qualifying for federal positions, the page says.

Patterns that deserve a closer look before you accept a degree:

• The school is in neither DAPIP nor CHEA's database, and its accreditor is not recognized by either.
• The degree was granted for "life experience", or completed in weeks.
• The school's name closely imitates a well-known university, or its only address is a mailbox.
• The candidate cannot describe a single course, instructor or project.

An unaccredited school is not automatically a fraud, and a candidate who bought a worthless degree may have been the one deceived. Ask before you conclude.

Is it illegal to claim a fake degree?

In some states, yes, and the Department of Education's page notes that "in some states, it can be illegal to use a degree from an institution that is not accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency, unless approved by the state licensing agency." Two examples:

• Texas. Penal Code section 32.52, added by House Bill 1173 in 2005, makes it an offense to use or claim a postsecondary degree the person knows is fraudulent or substandard, fictitious or never granted to them, or revoked, with intent to obtain employment, a license, a promotion and other listed purposes. It is a Class B misdemeanor.
• Oregon. ORS 348.609 says a person may not claim an academic degree unless it comes from a school with accreditation recognized by the Department of Education (or the foreign equivalent), a school approved by Oregon's Higher Education Coordinating Commission, or one of the other listed categories. A legally issued degree from an unaccredited school may be claimed only with a written disclaimer on the resume, and never for a degree from a diploma mill. The commission validates degree claims.

For hiring, the criminal question rarely matters. What matters is whether the candidate misrepresented a qualification the job requires, and whether you handled the finding fairly.

How do you verify a foreign degree?

There are two separate questions, and they need different answers.

1. Is the document genuine? Ask the evaluation service how it confirms authenticity, or contact the issuing institution through contact details you find yourself.
2. What is it equivalent to? A three-year bachelor's degree, a diploma or a professional title may or may not match the US degree your posting names. A credential evaluation report answers this.

The National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) is a trade association of US-based, independent evaluation organizations. It does not perform evaluations itself and tells users to contact its members directly for their services, fees and requirements. Build the evaluation time into your offer timeline and tell the candidate early; asking for it at the last minute delays start dates and falls hardest on internationally educated candidates.

Should the job require a degree at all?

Verification only makes sense for a requirement that should be there. In Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971), the Supreme Court considered a high school education requirement and a general intelligence test that were not shown to be significantly related to job performance and that disqualified Black applicants at a substantially higher rate, and held that Title VII prohibited them. A degree requirement that screens out a protected group and is not tied to the work raises the same question today; the Title VII disparate impact page explains the test. Licensed professions are different: there the credential is the legal requirement.

What should you do when a degree doesn't check out?

Treat a mismatch as a question. The innocent explanations are common:

1. Tell the candidate what did not match, factually, and give a few working days to explain or provide documents.
2. If a screening company's report is the source and you may decide against the candidate because of it, the FTC's guide says to give a notice with a copy of the report before you take adverse action, then a final notice if you proceed.
3. Decide on materiality. A degree conferred a semester later than listed is not the same as a degree that was never earned.
4. Record the outcome neutrally: what was checked, what was found, what the candidate said, what you decided.

If the finding is a deliberate fabrication, how to handle a candidate who lies in an interview covers the conversation, and how to rescind a job offer covers the steps after an offer.

What should agencies write in the submittal?

Say exactly what was verified and how, for example: "Bachelor's degree confirmed through DegreeVerify on 14 October" (an invented example). Never describe a degree as verified because you saw a diploma image. If the client runs its own checks, agree in writing who verifies what, so each side does not assume the other did. Education checks are one part of confirming a candidate is who they say they are; the candidate identity verification checklist and how to spot candidate identity fraud cover the rest.