46 forged diplomas, 20 websites offering to produce them, a QR code on every new one: Kazakhstan's ministry statement of 4 August 2026 and how to check a degree

Kazakhstan's universities train large numbers of foreign medical students, and their diplomas are later presented to regulators in India, Pakistan and across Africa. That makes the question of how a Kazakh diploma is verified a practical one for students and families, and in August 2026 the Ministry of Science and Higher Education gave a detailed public answer after fake diplomas were found circulating online.

According to Zakon.kz, reporting on 4 August 2026 on a statement published on gov.kz, the ministry's press service said that 46 forged diplomas and 20 internet resources engaged in producing them had been identified. The materials were passed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Culture and Information, which the statement said monitor and suppress the manufacture and sale of fake diplomas. Orda.kz reported the same figures on 5 August 2026 and noted that the ministry had used the occasion to explain how a diploma can be checked.

The statement set out how a genuine Kazakh diploma is now produced. According to Zakon.kz, the ministry has built a database of diplomas issued since 1991 and has approved basic requirements for the format of university-issued diplomas and the series numbers assigned to graduates. New diplomas are generated through a special module that assigns a unique number and a QR code, and only officially responsible university staff registered in the module can use it. The number can only be generated from a student record in the Unified Higher Education Platform, so, in the ministry's words, no diploma number can be created where there is no record of the student. A diploma that lacks the generated number and QR code is considered invalid. Employers and others can check a diploma at epvo.kz, and graduates can see an electronic version in the Digital Documents section of the eGov mobile app. Forgery or use of a forged document falls under Article 385 of the Criminal Code, with penalties ranging from a fine or corrective labour to restriction or deprivation of liberty for up to two years.

The mechanism the ministry is targeting is the online diploma shop, a website that offers a document with a plausible seal and no record behind it. Orda.kz linked the warning to an earlier case in India in which a Kazakhstan-trained medical graduate was arrested after investigators alleged he had bought a forged licensing certificate and used it to complete an internship at a state hospital, a reminder that forged papers travel in both directions.

For a student the lesson is simple. A Kazakh diploma issued today should carry a unique number and a QR code, and it should be checkable at epvo.kz before you pay an agent, an attestation service or anyone charging a 'verification fee'. If a document cannot be found on the platform, treat it as invalid, and remember that a student who knowingly uses one risks prosecution in Kazakhstan and the loss of registration at home.