Australian AI tool targets fraudulent student applications

The Australian-built verification platform is backed by Education Centre of Australia (ECA) and Open Learning and designed to “protect universities from fraudulent applications, strengthen compliance, and improve conversion outcomes”.

UniReady Global was co-founded by Rupesh Singh, ECA’s group CEO, and Lawrence Pratchett, academic and leader in higher education strategy, governance, and quality.

The new ed-tech platform will verify student documents, finances, Genuine Student (GS) status, and other details required by overseas universities and colleges in the admissions process.

“Australian universities are under pressure to verify student authenticity faster and more reliably,” said Pratchett. “Our platform removes manual bottlenecks, improves accuracy, and enables quicker, more confident admissions decisions, at no cost to universities.”

Under the model, students fund their own verification, removing institutional overheads.

Australian universities are under pressure to verify student authenticity faster and more reliably

Lawrence Pratchett, UniReady Global

The team behind the initiative cited recent student visa integrity alerts from the Department of Home Affairs, following reports of fraudulent Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) issuances at universities.

“Manual checking processes remain slow, inconsistent, and prone to human error, leaving institutions exposed to reputational, compliance, and visa-risk consequences,” a statement from the newly launched organisation read.

UniReady Global said it combines “nearly two decades of higher-education sector experience with advanced AI and secure, government-linked data sources to deliver a fully automated verification process”.

The platform retrieves official identity, academic and English records directly from government databases, while students securely upload only their financial documents. All records are then verified at the source using proprietary AI, eliminating manual errors and ensuring accuracy.

The team behind the platform say its AI-powered, adaptive Genuine Student (GS) Interview dynamically adjusts to each student’s statement of purpose and responses, assessing intent and compliance in real time. They add that this approach can reduce assessment time by up to 75%, ensure consistency across assessors and strengthen compliance with Australian visa and privacy standards.

“After years of reviewing verification systems, this is the most comprehensive solution I’ve seen,” said Elaine Starkey, higher education sector advisor to UniReady Global.

“It’s simple, secure, and addresses all key pain points, identity, academic records, English, financials, and interviews, giving universities complete confidence in every application,” she added.

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