No Way to Fake It

By Lincoln G. Peters

Monrovia, June 12, 2026: The Interim President of the United Methodist University (UMU), Cllr. Medina A. Wesseh has announced new measures to combat academic fraud, unveiling a QR code security feature on UMU degrees.

Wesseh said the new security feature follows several complaints about academic fraud, including incidents of individuals faking UMU degrees and claiming to be graduates.

The first batch of QR code-enabled degrees was issued during the university’s 21st convocation and commencement exercises in March, when 612 students graduated from UMU.

The new degrees will feature a QR code, which, when scanned, directs users to the UMU system where the graduate’s full name, department, chairperson, university president, and year of graduation are displayed for verification.

” The degree that we will be giving out come June 15, for this end of graduation exercise, will have some special security features that we hope that once we put them out, other universities will be able to learn from us and ensure that going forward, it will be very difficult to forges or to fake. We’re not saying it’s impossible, but what we’ll be doing is show that we’re using the QR code as a technology. And in that technology, you will see the QR code” she indicated.

She cited a recent case in which an individual used a fake UMU degree to secure a position at a government ministry, prompting the university to strengthen its degree verification process.

She explained that inconsistencies in the fake degree’s details led to its discovery and emphasized the importance of maintaining the integrity of UMU’s credentials.

Wesseh warned that photocopied degrees will have non-functional QR codes and that attempts to tamper with the security feature have been addressed by the university.

” Thank you. So, as you see it, this will be the QR code. You zoom into it. Don’t call me Zoomie, call me Unity. So once you have picked up on that, everything that is out here will show here.

And then we’ll close out because we’ve now closed up on this. And then the person is secure that nobody can carry a fake paper anywhere else”, she noted.