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.
Gillian McKeith is a Scottish television personality and writer. She is known for her promotion of various pseudoscientific ideas about health and nutrition. She is the former host of Channel 4's You Are What You Eat (2004–2006), Granada Television's Dr Gillian McKeith's Feel Fab Forever (2009–2010), and W Network's Eat Yourself Sexy (2010). In 2008, McKeith regularly appeared on the E4 health show Supersize vs Superskinny, and in 2010, she was a contestant on the tenth series of the ITV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
Breyer State University, also called Breyer State University-Alabama, is an unaccredited distance education, for profit, private university that formerly operated in the U.S. states of Idaho and Alabama and now reports a location in Panama. It has been described by The New Republic magazine as a diploma mill that "claimed official-sounding accreditation to attract hundreds of people to obtain degrees". Breyer State University disputes this categorization.
Belford University was an organization that offered online unaccredited degrees for "life experience". The organization maintained a post office box in Humble, Texas, but its certificates were mailed from the United Arab Emirates. Along with many similar websites, it was owned by the Karachi-based company Axact, the main business of which, according to an investigation by The New York Times, is "to take the centuries-old scam of selling fake academic degrees and turn it into an Internet-era scheme on a global scale". In July 2018, Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh, the CEO of Axact was arrested and sentenced to prison for 20 years for his role in perpetuating this scam.
You Are What You Eat is a British dieting programme presented by Trisha Goddard and Amir Khan that broadcasts on Channel 5. The show was originally broadcast on Channel 4, before moving to Channel 5 in 2022 for its revived series. Both the Channel 4 and Channel 5 versions of the show were produced by CPL Productions.
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".
Madison University is a non-accredited distance learning college located in Gulfport, Mississippi. The state of Mississippi considers Madison an "unapproved" college. Madison is also listed as an unaccredited and/or substandard institution by four other U.S. states. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Madison University has been referred to as a diploma mill by the state of Oregon.
The California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE) was a unit of the California Department of Consumer Affairs whose purpose was to protect students by establishing academic standards for private institutions of higher education in California. BPPVE approval or exemption was required by the State of California to ensure consumer safety from fraudulent or substandard education providers. The agency ceased operation on July 1, 2007, when the legislative authority for its creation expired. A new agency, the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, took its place on January 1, 2010.
St John's University School of Medicine was a medical school operated by Daniel and Barbara Harrington and their company Interactive Technology Group, Inc. (ITG) of Eugene, Oregon, which was supposedly based in Montserrat, West Indies. It offered online distance education courses such as Neuro Anatomy, Lung Pathology, Cat Lab and Lab Animal Science trainer for a monthly subscription fee, as well as some classes which were taught in Klamath Falls, and Eugene, Oregon. The school is not accredited by any recognized accreditation body. As such, its degrees may not be acceptable to employers or other institutions, and use of degree titles may be restricted or illegal in some jurisdictions.
The name Warnborough is associated with several related institutions of higher education existing from 1973 to the present, including Warnborough College Oxford, Warnborough College UK, Warnborough College Ireland and Warnborough University, some of which are no longer in operation. Warnborough College UK provides educational programmes both on-site in Canterbury, England, and by distance learning. Warnborough College Ireland offers distance-learning programmes from Ireland. Warnborough College has been the subject of multiple controversies relating to misrepresentation, education quality, legal and tax troubles, and eligibility to participate in government financial assistance.
Unaccredited institutions of higher education are colleges, trade schools, seminaries, and universities which do not have formal educational accreditation.
St. Theresa's Medical University was a medical school located in Basseterre, St. Kitts prior to its closure in 2009.
Washington International University is an online unaccredited institution of higher education founded in 1994 and currently incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. It describes itself as a "cyberspace university" and a "university without borders", serving clients from around the world online. The university website states that WIU's graduates have come from 112 countries.
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.
Huntington University of Health Sciences, formerly known as the American Academy of Nutrition and Huntington College of Health Sciences, is a for-profit higher education institution based in Knoxville, Tennessee that offers programs in nutrition and health via distance education.
Lloyd E. Clayton Jr. was an American naturopath who established three for profit educational institutions in Birmingham, Alabama. He died on Jan 14, 2019. The schools he founded are Clayton College of Natural Health, the American Institute of Computer Science, and Chadwick University. He also owned a business that sold herbal and homeopathic products.
Warren National University, previously known as Kennedy-Western University, was an unaccredited private distance learning university that claimed to offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States from 1984 to 2009. It has been described by federal investigators and news sources as a diploma mill Its administrative offices were located in Agoura Hills, California.
The Management Institute of Canada or Institut Canadien de Management (MIC) is a Canadian professional school based in Montreal, authorized by the government of Quebec. MIC is an unaccredited non-degree business school in Quebec, offering online programs in business administration.
