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A diploma mill is a business that sells illegitimate diplomas or academic degrees. The term diploma mill is also used pejoratively to describe any educational institution with low admission and graduation standards, low job placement rate, or low average starting salaries of its graduates.
The World Association of Universities and Colleges (WAUC) is an institutional educational accreditation body not recognized by the United States Department of Education. It is run by Maxine Asher, director of the American World University, an unaccredited school. WAUC's website claims that "laws in the U.S.A. prohibit the recognition of global accreditation associations".
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.
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.
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.
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.
University Degree Program (UDP) is or was an unaccredited consortium of diploma mills run by Americans Jason and Caroline Abraham beginning in the 1990s. In 2004, The Chronicle of Higher Education called UDP the "granddaddy" of diploma mill operations.
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.
Unaccredited institutions of higher education are colleges, trade schools, seminaries, and universities which do not have formal educational accreditation.
The Isles International University/Université (IIU), formerly known as Irish International University and European Business School, is an unaccredited university operating currently in Ireland.
Bienville University was an unaccredited institution that was based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was run by Thomas J. Kirk. Bienville University was referred to as a diploma mill or degree mill in a 2003 article by KVBC News 3. It was never recognised or approved by any accreditation agency and was not approved by the US Department of Education nor the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and has been closed by the State of Louisiana.
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.
EU Business School is a private business school with campuses in Geneva (Switzerland), Barcelona (Spain), and Munich (Germany). It is a member of OMNES Education Group since 2022.
American City University (ACU) is a private unaccredited distance education university headquartered in Pasadena, California. The school currently offers an online MBA program.
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, a designation it has disputed. Its administrative offices were located in Agoura Hills, California.
ISSEA is a group of unaccredited for-profit diploma mills owned by Massimo Silvestri, which use many invented names and originated from the now defunct Politecnico di studi aziendali di Lugano Unipsa. The goal of the organization is to sell unaccredited Italian online degrees; however, since unaccredited degrees are illegal in Italy, the sole trader usually operates from bordering Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland.
References
- ↑ "Home | International University in Geneva | IUG".
- ↑ Rushford Business School
- ↑ Swiss School of Business and Management
- ↑ "Home | Swiss School of Applied Sciences for Economics and Management".
- ↑ Montreux Institute of Business Development
- ↑ Swiss Montreux Business School
- ↑ "SSHE - Swiss School of Higher Education | University in Montreux, Switzerland". SSHE. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
- ↑ "Home • Monarch Business School Switzerland". Monarch Business School Switzerland. Retrieved 2021-07-26.