An infra-red scan showing blood coursing through the veins of the hand is the latest attempt by business schools to stamp out impersonation among prospective master of business administration (MBA) candidates.

From next year, 250,000 applicants taking the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) will have to undergo a palm-vein scan to establish their identity.

Trials have begun in South Korea and the technology will be introduced at more than 450 centres worldwide over the next few months. British centres will start using it in May.

The scans are used widely in Japan at cashpoint machines but appeared only recently in the West.

Students put their hands for a few seconds over the device — roughly the size of a 3.5cm cube — which captures the vein patterns in their palms for a unique image that is archived along with the test results.

The identity verification technology is “difficult to spoof”, said Dave Wilson, the president of the Graduate Management Admission Council, which represents top businesses and oversees the test. “If you’ve got abrasions or dried skin on your fingers then fingerprint readers aren’t always effective,” he said.

Mr Wilson would not disclose the level of cheating in the GMAT but said that his company wanted to stay “one step ahead of the bad guys”.

Vein scanners, which typically cost less than £500 each, read the characteristics of the reduced haemoglobin flowing through the veins of the palm. This makes it possible to take a snapshot of what is beneath the outer skin, something very hard to read or steal, its maker, Fujistu, says.

The council is introducing the technology to target “proxy” test taking, where applicants hire high-scoring impostors to take the exam in their place. The company says the palm scan is superior to its current security measures, which include fingerprinting and videotaping the candidates.

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