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Thomas Edison State University is a public university in Trenton, New Jersey. It is a majority-online institution that serves the state's adult population.
Bronte International University is an unaccredited post-secondary educational institution formerly in South Dakota. It is widely considered to be a diploma mill, operated from an unknown location. Its website offers "fast" degrees for "life experience".
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. The degrees can be fabricated (made-up), falsified (fake), or misrepresented. 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.
American World University (AWU) is an unaccredited institution offering post-secondary education programs by distance learning. It has no physical campus. It awards academic degrees. In January 2000 American World University offered "all degrees" for $1,000 as a "New Years Special".
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.
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.
An online degree is an academic degree that can be earned primarily or entirely through the use of an Internet-connected computer, rather than attending college in a traditional campus setting. Improvements in technology, the increasing use of the Internet worldwide, and the need for people to have flexible school schedules while they are working have led to a proliferation of online colleges that award associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.
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 ten-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. They were owned and operated by Pakistani software company Axact.
Thomas James Kirk II operated several fraudulent higher education organizations, including LaSalle University in Mandeville, Louisiana, the University of San Gabriel Valley, and Bienville University. Kirk's "LaSalle University" was shut down in 1996 following a raid by the FBI. Kirk was indicted for tax fraud in 1996 and, after a plea agreement, was sentenced to five years in U.S. federal prison. Kirk later died in January 2008.
Name It and Frame It? is a 1993 book, written by Steve Levicoff, about unaccredited Christian colleges and universities, exploring the accreditation process and the nature of legitimate and illegitimate unaccredited institutions of higher learning. 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 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 than the American University in London.
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.
The University of Atlanta was a private for-profit distance education headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The school opened in Mobile, Alabama as Barrington University and functioned as a diploma mill until it received accreditation in 2012. It relocated to Atlanta in 2008 and changed to University of Atlanta and was authorized by the State of Georgia's Nonpublic Post Secondary Education Commission. Until it closed June 30, 2013, the University of Atlanta was accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council.
Lloyd E. Clayton Jr. is an American naturopath who established three for profit educational institutions in Birmingham, Alabama. The schools he founded are Clayton College of Natural Health, the American Institute of Computer Science, and Chadwick University. He also owns a business that sells herbal and homeopathic products.
Monticello University was an unaccredited diploma mill incorporated in Hawaii, but based in Kansas, whose operator Leslie Edwin Snell was found guilty in 2000 of issuing invalid degrees, and which Kansas has accused of being fake. The Circuit Court of the First Circuit in the State of Hawaii ordered the university, amongst other orders, preventing it from claiming it was legally qualified to issue degrees, to declare that it utilises "erroneous or misleading advertising".
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. Its administrative offices were located in Agoura Hills, California.
References
- ↑ "Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation: Tax Exempt/NonProfit Organization Information". www.taxexemptworld.com. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- 1 2 3 4 Bear, John; Bear, Mariah P. (2003). Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 1-58008-431-1.
- ↑ "State of Kansas v. Snell et al" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-22. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
