Type | Private, distance learning |
---|---|
Established | 1991 |
President | Donald Grunewald |
Location | , CNMI (U.S. commonwealth) 15°12′24″N145°43′14″E / 15.2066°N 145.7206°E |
Website | http://www.adamsmith.edu |
Adam Smith University is a private distance learning university founded in 1991 by Donald Grunewald, who is still its president. [1] Grunewald was president of Mercy College between 1972 and 1984.
Adam Smith university espouses the principle of independence from state control and promotes free-market business economics. [1]
Adam Smith's current American mailing address is a private mailbox in Garapan on Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth. [1] Adam Smith University asserts the establishment of a French unit called École Supérieure Universitaire Adam Smith, which offers academic degrees for work experience. [2]
Adam Smith University was accredited by the Liberian Ministry of Education since 1995, well before the most recent conflicts, and was accredited as a result of an act of the Liberian legislature. [1] [3] The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board identifies the institution as operating from Liberia and Saipan, but states that it has "no degree-granting authority from Liberia or Saipan." [4] [5]
Adam Smith University found early praise when it was listed in “College Degrees by Mail: 100 Good Schools that offer bachelor’s, master’s, doctorates, and law degrees by the home study” by John Bear (Berkeley, California, Ten Speed Press, 1995). Others, however, would criticize the institution. Steve Levicoff referred to Adam Smith University as a degree mill, and he noted that it operated in Louisiana due to the absence of laws regulating the granting of degrees. [6] Adam Smith University and Columbia State University have the same address, which is "likely a mail forwarding address". [7]
Other critics have described Adam Smith University as a "diploma mill". Alan Contreras from the Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization (ODA), an agency of that state's government, called Adam Smith "a diploma mill with a long and unattractive history" in an article [8] written in a personal capacity. However, in 2005, he updated Adam Smith's listing on the ODA website to remove the term "diploma mill."
An école normale supérieure or ENS is a type of elite publicly funded higher education institution in France. A portion of the student body, admitted via a highly-selective competitive examination process, are French civil servants and are known as normaliens. ENSes also offer master's and PhD degrees, and can be compared to "Institutes for Advanced Studies". They constitute the top level of research-training education in the French university system.
Saint Regis University, sometimes styled as St. Regis University, was a diploma mill operation that was one of about 120 connected institutions operated by an American fraud ring from about 1999 until 2005, when it was shut down by U.S. government authorities. The operation was known as "Operation Gold Seal".
A diploma mill or degree mill is a business that sells illegitimate diplomas or academic degrees, respectively. The term diploma mill is also used pejoratively to describe any educational institution with low standards for admission and graduation, low career placement rate, or low average starting salaries of its graduates.
The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) is a U.S. based institutional accreditation organization that focuses on Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries seeking collegiate accreditation in the United States. TRACS, which is based in Forest, Virginia, is recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
Rochville University was an online diploma mill offering a "Life Experience Degree, and Certificate Program" without coursework or prior transcript evaluation. The State of Texas classified it as an "illegal supplier of educational credentials" whose degrees may not be used in Texas. The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization lists it as "fake". Its operation is believed to be centered in Pakistan, and its diplomas and degree certificates have been mailed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Along with many similar enterprises, it is owned by the Karachi based company, Axact, whose main business, according to a New York Times investigation, is "to take the centuries-old scam of selling fake academic degrees and turn it into an Internet-era scheme on a global scale".
Rushmore University is an unaccredited institution of higher learning offering online degrees in a variety of business-related fields, exclusively via distance learning. It has been described as a diploma mill, providing illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee.
The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization (ODA) is a unit of the Office of Student Access and Completion, with responsibilities related to maintaining high standards in private higher education institutions in Oregon. ODA administers laws and provides oversight of private colleges and universities offering degree programs in the state, validates individual claims of degrees, enforces the closure of substandard or fraudulent higher education programs in the state, and enforces policy for publicly funded postsecondary programs and locations. It was formerly a unit of the Oregon Student Access Commission (OSAC), which became Oregon Student Assistance Commission prior to January 1, 2012. Its functions moved to the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission as part of the Office of Student Access and Completion in July 2012.
Buxton University was an accredited vendor of distance education that used a postal address in the United Kingdom. It is associated with the Instantdegrees.com website.
Knightsbridge University is a private distance learning institution based in Denmark that caters mostly to English speaking people. It was founded in 1991 by Henrik Fyrst Kristensen. Although the school is based in Denmark, John Bear's guide states that Knightsbridge was formerly incorporated in Liberia and at time of publication was incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda, while using a mailing address in Scotland.
Concordia College and University is an entity with a primary mailing address in Delaware that represents itself as a real life institution that awards associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees based solely on the purchaser's work and life experience, with some credits transferred in. Although the name is similar, Concordia College and University is not in any way affiliated with any of the regionally accredited institutions within the six-member Concordia University System.
Almeda University was an unaccredited for-profit online university registered on the Caribbean island of Nevis. It offered illegitimate degrees including online certificate programs, general "Life Experience Degrees", and doctorates in religion and theology. Almeda was accredited by the Council for Distance Education Accreditation, the Interfaith Education Ministries (IEM), and the Association for Online Academic Excellence (AOAEX), none of which were recognized by the United States Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Almeda University is widely regarded as a diploma mill. It was owned and operated by Pakistani software company Axact.
Name It and Frame It? is a 1993 book by Steve Levicoff about unaccredited Christian colleges and universities, exploring the accreditation process and the nature of legitimate and illegitimate unaccredited institutions of higher education. The fourth edition contains updated information and responses from some of the surveyed schools. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the National Center for Science Education, the Palm Beach Post, the Seattle Times, and the New York Post have mentioned the book as a resource. Additionally, it has been cited by numerous authors, including Julie Anne Duncan, Douglas Flather, John Bear and Allen Ezell.
The World Online Education Accrediting Commission (WOEAC) is an entity with no identified geographic location that represents itself as an accrediting organization for online degree providers. It is not recognized as a higher education accreditor by either the United States Department of Education (USDE) or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
The American University of London (AUOL) is an online diploma mill. The company disputes the label and instead describes itself as a for-profit unaccredited educational institution offering undergraduate and graduate degrees solely by distance learning. It is a different organization from the American University in London.
Diploma mills in the United States are organizations that award academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without academic approval by officially recognized educational accrediting bodies or qualified government agencies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit. These degrees are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some organizations claim accreditation by non-recognized/unapproved accrediting bodies set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity.
The community of universities and higher education institutions of Aquitaine is an association of universities and higher education institutions (ComUE) for higher education institutions in the Aquitaine region of France, including the city of Bordeaux.
The Institute of Intercultural Management and Communication or ISIT, formerly Institut Supérieur d’Interprétation et de Traduction, is a French Grande École of Paris-Panthéon-Assas University.