Are Degree's Public Knowledge?
April 1, 2010 11:16 AM Subscribe
If you had a bachelors degree from a university in Canada., how searchable is this by other parties ? Is there a master list somewhere of everyone who has graduated? If someone wanted to find out if you had a degree, how would they go about it? This is in Canada.
There's no master list as far as I know but to confirm that someone has a degree from school X you just call the registrar's office of school X and ask. They will tell you (or mail you a document telling you).
posted by phoenixy at 11:24 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by phoenixy at 11:24 AM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
I imagine they would either call the registrar's office at your school or request an official transcript (then again, I'm just assuming you're referring to a potential employer).
FWIW, I Googled "convocation" plus my name, school, and year of graduation and found a PDF of my convocation programme in the first result.
posted by futureisunwritten at 11:30 AM on April 1, 2010
FWIW, I Googled "convocation" plus my name, school, and year of graduation and found a PDF of my convocation programme in the first result.
posted by futureisunwritten at 11:30 AM on April 1, 2010
I was going to say, there's no way, they'd just ask you to provide evidence (email from registrar's office, transcript etc.). However, seeing what futureisunwritten wrote, I googled the same, my name plus convocation. Top google hits are my current academic position, then I did find my MA convocation, but my doctoral and BA did not show up (all of this in Canada). People are not necessarily going to think of googling (I hadn't), and they shouldn't since it's not going to be reliable. I still think they'll put the onus on you to prove it, or just take your word on it (particularly if it's at the BA and not graduate levels).
posted by kch at 11:45 AM on April 1, 2010
posted by kch at 11:45 AM on April 1, 2010
Yep, registrar offices field these requests all the time. So if you just claim to have a bachelors, then there isn't much someone can do, but a bachelors from the University of Toronto is easily verified.
posted by dnesan at 11:45 AM on April 1, 2010
posted by dnesan at 11:45 AM on April 1, 2010
Many large universities even have a department called "Degree Check" or something whose job it is to answer questions about whether so-and-so has a degree from that institution.
posted by nestor_makhno at 2:27 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by nestor_makhno at 2:27 PM on April 1, 2010
Is there a master list somewhere of everyone who has graduated?
Not that I'm aware of. The closest thing I can think of is for Master's and PhD theses. If you submit a thesis at a Canadian university, it should be findable here. However, some (many?) Master's programs in Canada don't require a thesis; I'm not exactly sure about doctorates.
posted by mhum at 2:28 PM on April 1, 2010
Not that I'm aware of. The closest thing I can think of is for Master's and PhD theses. If you submit a thesis at a Canadian university, it should be findable here. However, some (many?) Master's programs in Canada don't require a thesis; I'm not exactly sure about doctorates.
posted by mhum at 2:28 PM on April 1, 2010
Response by poster: How would someone look to see if someone had a degree at all? What if you didnt claim to have one. Can you search to see if someone has an education they didn't reveal?
posted by cascando at 2:34 PM on April 1, 2010
posted by cascando at 2:34 PM on April 1, 2010
Can you search to see if someone has an education they didn't reveal?
Hmm... This question has taken an interesting turn. In this case, I'd probably do a combination of the first few answers:
1) Google the person to find out which school(s) they may have attended. Even if the person didn't list their school on their, say, Facebook profile, if you can see which schools their friends have attended you can make a decent guess. Also, if they went to university sometime in the Internet era, there's a good chance that they've left some kind of trace on the university's own sites (e.g.: did they give/attend a seminar? were they part of a student group? were they quoted in the school paper? subscribed to a mailing list that keeps online archives? did one of their courses require some kind of web-based project? were they mentioned in the alumni newsletter?).
2) Once you have a list of candidate schools, contact their registrar's office or whoever does degree verification to find out if they graduated. For example, here is the University of Toronto's.
posted by mhum at 4:34 PM on April 1, 2010
Hmm... This question has taken an interesting turn. In this case, I'd probably do a combination of the first few answers:
1) Google the person to find out which school(s) they may have attended. Even if the person didn't list their school on their, say, Facebook profile, if you can see which schools their friends have attended you can make a decent guess. Also, if they went to university sometime in the Internet era, there's a good chance that they've left some kind of trace on the university's own sites (e.g.: did they give/attend a seminar? were they part of a student group? were they quoted in the school paper? subscribed to a mailing list that keeps online archives? did one of their courses require some kind of web-based project? were they mentioned in the alumni newsletter?).
2) Once you have a list of candidate schools, contact their registrar's office or whoever does degree verification to find out if they graduated. For example, here is the University of Toronto's.
posted by mhum at 4:34 PM on April 1, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by GuyZero at 11:23 AM on April 1, 2010