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posted by takyon on Friday July 17 2015, @08:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the brb-printing-diploma dept.

We often discuss the merit (or necessity) of having a formal degree in technology. This story is another installment in that debate:

The Department of the Interior's computer systems played a major role in the breach of systems belonging to the Office of Personnel Management, and DOI officials were called before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about the over 3,000 vulnerabilities in agency systems discovered in a penetration test run by Interior's Inspector General office. But there was one unexpected revelation during the hearing: a key Interior technology official who had access to sensitive systems for over five years had lied about his education, submitting falsified college transcripts produced by an online service.

The official, Faisal Ahmed, was assistant director of the Interior's Office of Law Enforcement and Security from 2007 to 2013, heading its Technology division. He claimed to have a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and a master's degree in technology management from the University of Central Florida—but he never attended either of those schools. He resigned from his position at Interior when the fraudulent claim was exposed by a representative of the University of Central Florida's alumni association, who discovered he had never attended the school after Ahmed accepted and then suddenly deleted a connection with her on LinkedIn.

TFA emphasizes the falsification he did of his credentials, but there seems to be heavy insinuation that lack of degree = lack of ability.


Official Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Friday July 17 2015, @02:31PM

    by AnonymousCowardNoMore (5416) on Friday July 17 2015, @02:31PM (#210440)

    But self-education shows that...

    It does no such thing. The entire point ledow made by saying that a degree proves stuff is that it has been verified. Imperfectly verified, but nonetheless verified. Self-educated people can not be known to know any of the things they supposedly learned without extensive testing—basically by putting them through a degree program anyway.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @02:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @02:52PM (#210449)

    It does no such thing.

    Self-education itself does show such a thing. What you're saying is that it can't be easily verified by others, but it can be verified by you. But if you could somehow verify it, it would show that.

    basically by putting them through a degree program anyway.

    Degree programs last for years. The specific skills a job requires is unlikely to require tests that would last for years or even days, so this is just false.

    I can see why employers would take the lazy and harmful way out (rather than providing training and screening employees, which would also eliminate people who have degrees but are also idiots), but that doesn't mean it's ultimately good for society.