- Utah's higher education system lost over $840,000 from 2025 to 2026 to enrollment fraud.
- Audit reveals university personnel spent 15,000 hours mitigating fraud from 2025 to 2026.
- Recommendations include data sharing and stronger fraud prevention coordination among institutions.
SALT LAKE CITY — A legislative audit released Tuesday found Utah's higher education landscape has experienced a surge in enrollment fraud.
Typically, the audit said, this occurs when people — commonly known as "ghost students" — use false or stolen identities to enroll in higher education institutions to obtain financial aid or other resources.
When fraudulent attempts succeed, the colleges are required to pay the federal government back for the loss.
It's a waste of both money and time that Utah is no stranger to, as Utah System of Higher Education institutions reported disbursing $834,000 to suspected fraudulent applicants and spending over 15,000 hours working to mitigate enrollment fraud from 2025 to 2026, according to the audit.
'Institutions did not prepare'
Salt Lake Community College alone has received 2,000 fraudulent applications in the last five years, and at Utah Valley University, ghost students were able to enroll in required classes, making real students sit on waitlists, hoping to get a spot.
A systemwide lack of preparation could be at fault.
"Institutions did not prepare as a system to implement fraud prevention practices and scrambled to develop reactive solutions when enrollment fraud spiked. These ad hoc and siloed approaches resulted in significant amounts of wasted time and money," said the audit.
The audit explained that there is currently no formal approach to address enrollment fraud as a larger system, suggesting that the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education coordinate with institutional leaders to implement and support an official forum or task force, comprised of stakeholders from all institutions, focused on preventing fraud.
Another avenue toward addressing enrollment fraud, per the audit, is increased data sharing.
The audit noted that staff at multiple institutions were concerned that the same stolen identities were being used at several schools but were hesitant to alert other USHE institutions due to data privacy limitations.
To that end, the audit suggested the Utah Legislature clarify state code to allow USHE institutions to share data on fraudulent applications with "appropriate safeguards."
Other recommendations concluded:
- The Utah System of Higher Education should consider a menu of options to strengthen security during the application process against enrollment fraud. Doing so will continue to provide access to higher education while mitigating enrollment fraud.
- The Utah System of Higher Education should validate the Admit Utah application with college admissions directors to balance the pursuit of access with an effective process. This will reduce fraud risk and lower the burden imposed on institutions as the program scales.
- Institutions within the Utah System of Higher Education should assign clear responsibility to an officer or administrator to proactively lead the institution's efforts to mitigate the evolving threat of enrollment fraud. This will strengthen internal planning and coordination across departments.
- Institutions within the Utah System of Higher Education should establish and report key metrics measuring the effect of enrollment fraud such as financial loss and impact on personnel, applicants, and students. This will provide the institution with greater awareness of the scale of fraud risk and effectiveness of risk controls.
System of Higher Education responds
Utah System of Higher Education Commissioner Geoffrey Landward, who was given a copy of the audit ahead of its public release Tuesday, acknowledged in a letter response to the audit team that enrollment fraud in admissions and financial aid is a growing issue across the nation.
"Utah's institutions are not unique in facing increasingly sophisticated and high-volume fraudulent activity, particularly as access has expanded and application processes have evolved," Landward wrote.
He added that he is committed to working with USHE institutions to mitigate and prevent enrollment fraud.
"We agree that stronger coordination, clearer accountability, and shared learning across institutions will be critical as this threat continues to evolve. We view the audit's recommendations as an important opportunity to strengthen systemwide collaboration while continuing to balance access to higher education with appropriate safeguards," Landward said in the letter.
