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As a credential evaluator, André Hesselbäck has spent decades tracking down fake degrees and degree mills. Credit: Penja Hesselbäck
This article is part of an occasional series in which Nature profiles scientists with unusual career histories or outside interests.
André Hesselbäck has spent the past 22 years hunting down fraudulent organizations that sell phoney degrees with no academic requirements or proper accreditation. Credential fraud encompasses diplomas, degrees, transcripts, certificates and other documents that are sold by bogus institutions that do not render genuine academic services. The practice, Hesselbäck says, has links to organized crime — and according to one estimate, it generates several billion US dollars each year.
Hesselbäck’s work spans many regions, but his current main focus is South Asia, which has both large student populations and many universities that are unrecognized by accreditation organizations. This is a far cry from his first job in higher education: after graduating with a PhD in Finno-Ugric languages, which include Hungarian and Finnish, from Uppsala University in Sweden in 2001, he chose academic administration because he wanted a stable career path and a role that allowed him to explore his interest in different educational systems.