# Revoke a College Degree -- Can They Do This? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 28, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867 "2009-09-28T17:57:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/21 "2009-09-29T13:36:43Z")
It’s even easier than that for employers to verify your credentials. Many universities cooperate with these guys to make degree verification a piece of cake: > **[National Student Clearinghouse](https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/)** > > The National Student Clearinghouse is the nation's trusted source for degree verification and enrollment verification and student educational outcomes research. ---
**Author:** ![walkerth13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@walkerth13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/walkerth13)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/22 "2011-07-31T20:57:57Z")
I guess the only way I got to this post was due to taking a break from work, and my own bordeom. Although lawyers can be disbarred, especially for repeatedly breaking state and federal laws, I seriously doubt that they can revoke a degree. That is unless the individual commits a very, very serious crime (such as murder, or mass murder). I understand that individuals with Ph.D., M.D.'s and other doctorates can be called into question for cheating, but I don’t think minor, or even fairly major cheating, after a degree has been conferred even qualifies for revoking of a degree. Folks! Lets face it CHEATING exists! PLAGARISM EXISTS! DISHONESTY EXISTS! I’ve worked around medical schools for almost 20 years! Do I think that the majority of students are honest hard working people? Yes! Do I think that distribution of OTQ (old test questions) and secondary invididuals writing papers for students exists YES! Do I think colleges or even individuals who consider someones degree be revoked for reasons should exist YES! Do I think they need to have a very detailed definition of why it should be revoked YES! If colleges and universities were to start revoking undergraduate degrees for cheating, it would affect 50- 75% of all graduates. Are colleges going to start doing this. I don’t think so, I doesn’t look good. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/23 "2011-07-31T21:39:30Z")
You don’t seem to know much about colleges, and I wonder where you got the figure of 50-75% of all graduates. The faculty of a college have all worked to get their degrees and look down upon any cheating. If you do it as a student, and are discovered, you are in serious trouble, and may flunk or course or be kicked out (depending on how serious the cheating was). Every faculty member I work with has been implacable in punishing students who they catch cheated. Do some people cheat? Sure. Do some get away with it? Of course. But no college ever turns a blind eye to cheating (well, maybe by a star athlete, but not even then). If a degree is granted to anyone who is known to have cheated, the faculty would insist that the college revoke it, since it devalues their work. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/24 "2011-07-31T21:58:59Z")
I think ya’ll missed the whole point of the original gag. His law degree was from a university in the **country** of **Colombia** , not from **Columbia**. I sincerely doubt a law degree from Colombia would qualify you to sit for the bar exam in any US state. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/25 "2011-07-31T22:07:08Z")
I think the gag was actually that his _bachelor’s_ is from Colombia. Thus, he needs a new bachelor’s. No one’s ever impugned his law degree (I suppose one must assume the problem is that the institution which granted him his law degree is unhappy with the fraudulent bachelor’s he used to get in). But, mostly, trying to make too much sense of such details won’t work out. It’s not trying to be anything other than funny. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/26 "2011-07-31T22:10:45Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > I think ya’ll missed the whole point of the original gag. His law degree was from a university in the **country** of **Colombia** , not from **Columbia**. I sincerely doubt a law degree from Colombia would qualify you to sit for the bar exam in any US state. It was Jeff’s _bachelor’s degree_ (or whatever the undergraduate degree is called in Colombia) that’s from a Colombian university; presumably his law degree is from an American law school. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/27 "2011-07-31T22:10:50Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > There are 2 very common dreams people have after college:… > 2- You go to take the final exam and it was moved and you can’t find the new room… > And #2 actually happened to me but I was able to find the new room. Okay, as long as somebody re-animated this zombie, I’ll post. This happened to me, too! I never found the room, and thought I got the date wrong. When I later talked with the professor, he believed me and let me take the test in his office. I never learned why he changed the test location… ☹ Very embarrassing and boy, did I feel stupid, but I’m glad he believed me. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/28 "2011-07-31T22:35:21Z")
> [@walkerth13](#): > > I guess the only way I got to this post was due to taking a break from work, and my own bordeom. Although lawyers can be disbarred, especially for repeatedly breaking state and federal laws, I seriously doubt that they can revoke a degree. That is unless the individual commits a very, very serious crime (such as murder, or mass murder). I understand that individuals with Ph.D., M.D.'s and other doctorates can be called into question for cheating, but I don’t think minor, or even fairly major cheating, after a degree has been conferred even qualifies for revoking of a degree. Did you read all the messages in the thread? Did you take a look at the links that were cited? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/29 "2011-07-31T23:35:12Z")
Quoth **walkerth13** : > [@](#): > > I guess the only way I got to this post was due to taking a break from work, and my own bordeom. Although lawyers can be disbarred, especially for repeatedly breaking state and federal laws, I seriously doubt that they can revoke a degree. That is unless the individual commits a very, very serious crime (such as murder, or mass murder). Why would they revoke a degree for murder? A degree isn’t a statement that so-and-so is a really swell guy. It’s a statement that he’s done a certain amount of work and has a certain amount of knowledge. Cheating would call that into question. Killing someone wouldn’t. > [@](#): > > Do I think that distribution of OTQ (old test questions) and secondary invididuals writing papers for students exists YES! In my experience, most professors distribute old test questions themselves, and the ones who don’t, it’s only because they’re not organized enough to have saved them. Distributing old test questions isn’t cheating. In fact, in my experience, the folks most likely to cheat are the least likely to get ahold of and go over old test questions-- That would be studying, and is too much work for them. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867/30 "2011-08-01T00:22:24Z")
I know they do the reverse of revoking degrees; a friend of mine got a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Tulane in about 1995 or so, and sometime in the early 2000s, they mailed him a Master’s degree, because the school or accreditation body or someone had decided that the degree actually meets the criteria for a Master’s, so they retroactively awarded Master’s to a bunch of people who were originally awarded Bachelor’s degrees. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revoke-a-college-degree-can-they-do-this/511867.md?page=1)