There is no need to set up a central database for academic degrees as individual universities and colleges have such systems, and the onus is on the public and firms to check and ensure that academic degrees they come across are authentic, the Higher Education Ministry told the Dewan Rakyat today.

"For a centralised system, now is not yet the time. The public must ascertain the authenticity of the degrees. The possibility of fraud is there but those fall under other laws outside the purview of the ministry," said its Deputy Minister Saifuddin Abdullah during Question Time.

He was answering the main question from Mohd Nasir Ibrahim Fikri (BN-Kuala Nerus) on whether the ministry plans to set-up a central database for degrees to make it easier to check their authenticity.

Saifuddin argued that security practices in the issuance of degrees or diploma by both public and private institutions of higher learning are already in place to safeguard the authenticity of qualifications issued, such as the use of watermark, unique running serial numbers and a database of recipients .

The deputy minister also reiterated that thus far, there have been no cases of fake degrees issued by the 20 public universities and over 60 private ones here, with recorded offences only involving false advertising.

He also said that most fake degrees are from overseas universities and the use of such degrees by anyone actually involves fraud, and can be prosecuted for such.

Inquiries into fake degrees became more frequent in the House after it was revealed that several prominent figures and government officers including at least a 'Tan Sri' have being queried by police for allegedly purchasing fake degrees from a local company that is being investigated.

Police and the government have refused to disclose details on the matter, as "investigations are ongoing", though both sides of the political aisles have been asking about what action will be taken against errant fake degree holders.