Huron is a city in Beadle County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 12,592 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Beadle County. Huron was the home of now-defunct Huron University. The Huron Plainsman, also referred to as the Plainsman, is the newspaper. The first settlement at Huron was made in 1880. The city was named after the Huron Indians. It is currently the ninth largest city in South Dakota, but it once was the fourth. Huron was in the running for capital of South Dakota but lost out to Pierre due to Pierre's positioning.
The Dakota Athletic Conference (DAC) was a college athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA. As the name implies, member teams were located in the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The conference folded in 2012.
A diploma mill is a company or organization that claims to be a higher education institution but provides illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee. These degrees may claim to give credit for relevant life experience, but should not be confused with legitimate prior learning assessment programs. They may also claim to evaluate work history or require submission of a thesis or dissertation for evaluation to give an appearance of authenticity. Diploma mills are frequently supported by accreditation mills, set up for the purpose of providing an appearance of authenticity. The term may also be used pejoratively to describe an accredited institution with low academic admission standards and a low job placement rate. An individual may or may not be aware that the degree they have obtained is not wholly legitimate. In either case, legal issues can arise if the qualification is used in résumés.
Adam Smith University is an unaccredited private distance learning university founded in 1991 by Dr. Donald Grunewald, who is still its president. Grunewald was president of Mercy College between 1972 and 1984. Since 1984 Grunewald is professor of Management at the Hagan School of Business at Iona College, teaching courses in Business Policy and Strategic Management. Grunewald served as a Member of Advisory Board of The Wilton Bank. Adam Smith university espouses the principle of independence from state control, believing that such control prevents it from furthering its mission.
Amberton University is a private, nonprofit university located in Garland, Texas, in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex of the United States of America. The main campus is adjacent to Interstate 635. Amberton is a private university that adheres to an Evangelical Christian philosophy. The school began as part of Abilene Christian University as an extension campus from 1971 until 1982, and was initially located in Mesquite, Texas, moving to Garland in 1974. Plans for its separation into an independent institution were initiated when the school received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1981, and it became known as Amber University in 1982, with the "ton" being added to its name in 2001. A branch campus was opened in Frisco, Texas in 2006.
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 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". 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.
American Central University (ACU) was an unaccredited distance learning private, for-profit university licensed by the state of Wyoming in 2004. The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization stated that the institution may be run from Malaysia.
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.
Huron University, also known as Si Tanka University at Huron, was a private university formerly located in Huron, South Dakota. Founded in 1883, it closed on April 1, 2005.
The University of Northern Virginia (UNVA) was an unaccredited for-profit private undergraduate and graduate university in Annandale, Virginia, The university offered bachelors, Masters and doctoral degrees. Although UNVA was not well known within the United States, it called itself the most popular American university for students from India.
St Christopher Iba Mar Diop College of Medicine was a medical training establishment in Luton, England, as a college within the University El Hadji Ibrahima Niasse of Dakar, Senegal. The Luton, England campus was closed in 2011.
Unaccredited institutions of higher education are colleges, trade schools, seminaries, and universities which do not have formal educational accreditation.
International American University (IAU) is a non-accredited private for-profit university of higher learning offering programs through both distance education and classroom instruction. The University started operations in 2005 in Los Angeles, as the Management Institute of America, Inc. It currently operates from facilities in Palmdale, California and Los Angeles, California.
A diploma mill is an organization that awards 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.
American City University (ACU) is a private unaccredited offeror of higher education via distance education operating from Pasadena, California. The school currently offers an online MBA program.
Warren National University, previously known as Kennedy-Western University, was a post-secondary, distance learning, unaccredited private university that offered 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, a designation it has disputed. Its administrative offices were located in Agoura Hills, California.
The Politecnico di Studi Aziendali, formerly also referred to as Politecnico di Lugano, is an unaccredited distance learning, proprietary, for-profit university located in Zug, Switzerland operated by ISSEA SA.
