On 25 May 2026, during the 33rd annual ENIC-NARIC meeting in Athens, the Council of Europe hosted a workshop on “AI & Education Fraud: Opportunities and Threats”. The event brought together over 70 participants to explore the growing impact of AI on education fraud, with a particular focus on verifying the authenticity of academic qualifications.
The workshop combined policy, research, and practice, and addressed three main themes:
- The Council of Europe’s work on academic integrity and countering education fraud, including key instruments such as the ETINED Platform, the 2022 Committee of Ministers Recommendation on Countering Education Fraud, and the newly established Centre for Preventing and Countering Education Fraud (PCEF);
- Ensuring the certification of human learning in the AI era, particularly in relation to evolving assessment methods;
- Insights from international initiatives, including the Fraud-Act and Verif-AI projects, focusing on data-driven approaches and emerging tools to detect fraud.
A panel discussion, chaired by Villano Qiriazi (Council of Europe), featured contributions from Prof. Phil Newton (Swansea University) and Elisa Petrucci (CIMEA, NARIC Italy), highlighting both the opportunities and risks of AI in recognition processes, particularly in online and unsupervised assessments.
The research and practice discussions underlined the role of higher education institutions in assessing competencies, the importance of structured data for monitoring fraud, and the need for reliable and secure assessment design in the AI context. AI was seen as particularly useful for supporting document verification and authenticity checks, while human oversight was consistently emphasised as essential.
Participants also stressed the importance of strengthened cooperation, training, and information sharing among ENIC-NARIC centres to effectively address emerging forms of education fraud.
For more information, follow us in LinkedIn and visit the Education website.
