Diploma mill

Diploma Mill
An Insight On Mickey Mouse Degrees Or Bird Courses Offered By Fake Educational Institutions

1. Diploma Mill Jodeldiplom An Insight On Mickey Mouse Degrees Or Bird Courses Offered By Fake Educational Institutions

2. Introduction A diploma mill (also known as a degree 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.

3. Introduction

4. Introduction 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.

5. Introduction

6. Introduction 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.

7. Introduction

8. Terminology The term "diploma mill" originally denotes an institution providing diplomas on an intensive and profit-making basis, like a factory . More broadly, it describes any institution that offers qualifications which are not accredited and/or are not based on proper academic assessment.

9. Terminology

10. Terminology While the terms "degree mill" and "diploma mill" are commonly used interchangeably, within the academic community a distinction is sometimes drawn. A "degree mill" issues diplomas from unaccredited institutions which may be legal in some states but are generally illegitimate, while a "diploma mill" issues counterfeit diplomas bearing the names of real universities.

11. Terminology

12. Terminology Academic diplomas may be legitimately awarded without any study as a recognition of authority or experience. When given extraordinarily, such degrees are called honorary degrees or honoris causa degrees. Also, in some universities, holders of a lower degree (such as a bachelor's degree) may be routinely awarded honorary higher degrees (such as a master's degree) without study.

13. Academic diplomas may be legitimately awarded without any study as a recognition of authority or experience.

14. Terminology The term "diploma mill" may also be used pejoratively to describe a legitimate institution with low academic admission standards and a low job placement rate, such as for-profit schools . Related practices are direct document forgery of certificates and corrupt buying of degrees from otherwise legitimate universities, although neither require a separate "mill".

15. "diploma mill" may also be used pejoratively to describe a legitimate institution with low academic admission standards and a low job placement rate

16. Characteristics Diploma mills share a number of features that differentiate them from respected institutions, although some legitimate institutions may exhibit some of the same characteristics

17. Accreditation And Authenticity The most notable feature of diploma mills is that they lack accreditation by a nationally recognized accrediting agency. Diploma mills therefore employ various tactics in an attempt to appear more legitimate to potential students.

18. Characteristics

19. Accreditation And Authenticity Some diploma mills claim accreditation by an accreditation mill while referring to themselves as being "fully accredited". Accreditation mills based in the United States may model their websites after real accrediting agencies overseen by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Another typical ploy is for mills to claim to be internationally recognized by organizations such as UNESCO. UNESCO has no authority to recognize or accredit higher education institutions or agencies, and has published warnings against education organizations that claim UNESCO recognition or affiliation.

20. Accreditation And Authenticity

21. Accreditation And Authenticity Some diploma and degree mills have played a role in creating unrecognized accrediting bodies as well. D iploma and degree mills may further confuse matters by claiming to consider work history, professional education, and previous learning, and may even require the submission of a dissertation or thesis in order to give an added appearance of legitimacy.

22. Accreditation And Authenticity

23. Accreditation And Authenticity As diploma mills are typically licensed to do business, it is common practice within the industry to misrepresent their business license as indicating government approval of the institution. Promotional materials may use words denoting a legal status such as "licensed", "state authorized", or "state-approved" to suggest an equivalence to accreditation

24. Accreditation And Authenticity

25. Accreditation And Authenticity Some advertise other indicators of authenticity that are not relevant to academic credentials. For example, the University of Northern Washington advertises that its degrees are "attested and sealed for authenticity by a government appointed notary". In reality notarization only certifies that the document was signed by the person named.

26. Accreditation And Authenticity

27. Accreditation And Authenticity Diploma mills are frequently named to sound confusingly similar to those of prestigious accredited academic institutions. Several diploma mills have adopted British-sounding names, similar but not identical to the names of legitimate universities, apparently to take advantage of the United Kingdom's reputation for educational quality in other parts of the world Some examples of British-sounding names used by diploma mills are "Shaftesbury University", "University of Dunham", "Redding University", and "Suffield University"

28. Accreditation And Authenticity

29. Accreditation And Authenticity The school’s website may well not have an . edu domain, or other country-specific equivalent, since registration of such names is typically restricted However, enforcement has sometimes been less restrictive, and an . edu domain cannot be taken as verification of school quality or reputation. Some diploma mills use an .ac top-level domain name, which resembles genuine second-level academic domain names like ac.uk but is in fact the ccTLD for Ascension Island. To prevent misuse of their names in this way, some legitimate academic institutions have registered .ac domains

30. The school’s website may well not have an . edu domain

31. Teaching Compared to legitimate institutions, diploma mills tend to have drastically lowered academic requirements, if any at all. Depending on the institution, students may be required to purchase textbooks, take tests, and submit homework, but degrees are commonly conferred after little or no study

32. Teaching

33. Teaching Instead of "hard sciences", where competence is easier to verify, the subjects offered by a diploma mill are often esoteric and may be based on a pseudoscience like astrology or naturopathy . Such subjects are only vaguely defined, making external verification of educational standards difficult.

34. Teaching

35. Teaching Degree mills typically offer little or no interaction with professors. Even if comments and corrections to coursework are given, they may have no bearing on the degree which is awarded. In other cases professors may serve only to write compliments to the student that can be given as references.

36. Teaching

37. Facilities Since diploma mills provide little in the way of teaching, there is usually no need for teaching facilities. The school tends to have no library, personnel, publications or research. In short, very little that is tangible can be found about the institution

38. Facilities

39. Facilities If teaching is offered, the professors may themselves hold advanced degrees from the diploma mill itself or from other unaccredited institutions. They may also sport legitimate qualifications that are unrelated to the subject they teach.

40. Facilities

41. Facilities Doctoral theses and dissertations from the institution will not be available from University Microfilms International, a national repository , or even the institution's own library, if it has one. The address given by the bogus institution is often a postal box, mail forwarding service or suite number. There are legitimate distance learning institutions with limited facilities, however, but legitimate universities make their authority clear.

42. Facilities

43. Facilities For academics, publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals are important for establishing scientific credentials. However , in diploma mills, the research is either absent, fake or purely self-published without any external review. This may be unfortunately hard to spot, since fake journals also exist . Faculty pages with bios and research may even be stolen from legitimate universities

44. Facilities

45. Promotion And Fees Buyers often use the diplomas to claim academic credentials for use in securing employment. For example, a schoolteacher might buy a degree from a diploma mill in order to advance to superintendent. Degrees from a diploma mill can be obtained within a few days, weeks or months from the time of enrollment , and back-dating is possible .

46. Promotion And Fees

47. Promotion And Fees Academic credit may be offered for "life experience," a point often featured heavily in the selling points of the institution. This should not be confused with legitimate programs offering recognition of prior learning, which allow students to gain academic credit based on past training, experience or independent study. This will usually require a test that the student can fail; a diploma mill will grant the degree regardless of results

48. Promotion And Fees

49. Promotion And Fees Tuition and fees are charged on a per-degree basis rather than by term or by course Diploma mills are often advertised using e-mail spam or other questionable methods.

50. Legal Considerations Degrees and diplomas issued by diploma mills have been used to obtain employment, raises, or clients. Even if issuing or receiving a diploma mill qualification is legal, passing it off as an accredited one for personal gain is a crime in many jurisdictions. In some cases the diploma mill may itself be guilty of an offense, if it knew or ought to have known that the qualifications it issues are used for fraudulent purposes.

51. Legal Considerations

52. Legal Considerations Diploma mills could also be guilty of fraud if they mislead customers into believing that the qualifications they issue are accredited or recognized, or make false claims that they will lead to career advancement, and accept money on the basis of these claims.

53. Legal Considerations

54. Legal Considerations Similar to tax havens, diploma mills frequently employ jurisdiction shopping, operating in another country or legal jurisdiction where running diploma mills is legal, standards are lax or prosecution is unlikely. Splitting the business across jurisdictions can be a way to avoid authorities. A school might operate in one jurisdiction but use a mailing address in a different jurisdiction, for example

55. Legal Considerations

56. Legal Considerations Author John Bear, a distance learning and diploma mills expert, has written that fake degrees are risky for buyers and consumers: " It is like putting a time bomb in your résumé. It could go off at any time, with dire consequences. The people who sell fake degrees will probably never suffer at all, but the people who buy them often suffer mightily. And – particularly if their "degree" is health-related – their clients may be seriously harmed.

57. Author John Bear shows an impressive-but-phoney Harvard degree he bought from a diploma mill for $40. (John Bear)

58. India The University Grants Commission (UGC) states, in section 22 of the University Grants Commission Act of 1956: "The right of conferring or granting degrees shall be exercised only by a University established or incorporated by or under a Central Act, a Provincial Act or a State Act or an institution deemed to be a University under section 3 or an institution specially empowered by an Act of Parliament to confer or grant degrees."

59. The University Grants Commission (UGC)

60. India UGC has published a warning dated July 2012 against Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) about the unrecognized status of IIPM.

61. Terminology Author Mill An author mill is a publisher that relies on producing large numbers of small-run books by different authors, as opposed to a smaller number of works published in larger numbers Predatory open access publishing is a closely related practice. However, the aims and the business model are rather different: predatory publishers will charge the author up front for publishing in a supposed scientific journal. Since academic evaluation is largely based on publication count or other bibliometrics, even well-meaning authors may be willing to pay to bolster their career prospects .

62. Author Mill

63. Terminology As described by Writer Beware, an author mill is: ... a company that publishes a very large number of authors in the expectation of selling a hundred books or so from each .Author mills don't require authors to make any financial expenditures at all, hidden or otherwise. However, they do rely on their authors as their major source of income, and so can be defined as vanity publishers, despite the lack of upfront or other charges. Also, author mills tend to share a business model with vanity publishers: no editorial screening of submissions, no meaningful pre-publication editing, no meaningful post-publication marketing or distribution.

64. Author Mill

65. Terminology Mickey Mouse degrees Mickey Mouse degrees (or Mickey Mouse courses , known as bird courses in Canada As a term for university degree courses regarded as worthless or irrelevant. The term was used by education minister Margaret Hodge, during a discussion on higher education expansion. [ Hodge defined a Mickey Mouse course as "one where the content is perhaps not as rigorous as one would expect and where the degree itself may not have huge relevance in the labour market"; and that, furthermore, "simply stacking up numbers on Mickey Mouse courses is not acceptable"

66. Mickey Mouse degrees

67. Essay Mill An essay mill (also term paper mill ) is a business that allows customers to commission an original piece of writing on a particular topic so that they may commit academic fraud. Customers provide the company with specific information about the essay, including: a page length, a general topic, and a time frame with which to work. The customer is then charged a certain amount per page

68. Essay Mill

69. Essay Mill Essay mill" companies hire university students, graduates, and professional writers to ghostwrite essays and term papers , and solicit business from university and college students by posting advertisements

70. Essay Mill

71. Accreditation Mill An accreditation mill is an organization that purports to award educational accreditation to higher education institutions without having government authority or recognition from mainstream academia to operate as an accreditor . Implicit in the terminology is the assumption that the "mill" has low standards (or no standards) for such accreditation. Accreditation mills are much like diploma mills, and in many cases are closely associated with diploma mills. The "accreditation" they supply has no legal or academic value, but is used in diploma mill marketing to help attract students

72. Accreditation Mill

73. Characteristics Allows accreditation to be purchased Allows institutions to attain accredited status in a very short period of time Does not conduct site visits or interviews of key personnel as part of its accreditation process , instead reviewing institutions solely on the basis of submitted documents Grants “permanent” accreditation, with no requirement for later periodic review Claims recognition from an authority such as CHEA without appearing on lists of accreditors recognized by that authority Has a name that is very similar to the name of a recognized accrediting organization Publishes a list of institutions or programs that it has accredited without the knowledge of the listed institutions and programs Publishes few or no standards for quality Publishes claims for which there is no evidence.

74. 10 Ways to Spot a Diploma Mill diploma mill, also known as a degree mill, is a phony university that sells college diplomas and transcripts—the actual pieces of paper—rather than the educational experience . Diploma mills are scam colleges that literally crank out fake diplomas to anyone who pays the requested "tuition." 

75. 10 Ways to Spot a Diploma Mill

76. 10 Ways to Spot a Diploma Mill Don’t be fooled by degree mills . Many maintain impressive-looking websites, and all of them advertise heavily online under the attractive terms "fast degree," "life experience degrees," "fast online degree" and "work experience degree."

77. 10 Ways to Spot a Diploma Mill

78. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 1. Your chosen university is not accredited . Degree mills love to use official-sounding terms to impress potential students. These terms often sound good, yet mean little in terms of educational quality. Be wary of these terms and phrases: “authenticated,” “verifiable,” “licensed,” “internationally approved,” “notarized,” “recognized by the Pope” and “accredited by UNESCO.”

79. 10 Ways to Spot a Diploma Mill

80. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 2. Your chosen university is accredited … but NOT by an agency recognized Department of Education . The majority of Internet degree mills are "accredited." The problem is that they are accredited by bogus agencies that they themselves have created. These bogus accrediting agencies—also known as accreditation mills—typically have prestigious sounding names. They often claim to be “worldwide” or “international” agencies and therefore superior to any single agency operating in the United States. Check the Diploma Mill Police's list of suspicious schools for scam reports and details on the real accreditation status of any online college .

81. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College

82. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 3. Admission criteria consist entirely of possession of a valid Visa or MasterCard. Previous academic record, grade point average and test scores are deemed irrelevant. Telemarketers and spam emails promise "you cannot be turned down" for a degree .

83. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College

84. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 4. You are offered a college degree based on a "review" of your work experience and faxed resume . Most degree mills offer what are known as experience degrees. Credit for career experience is a valid option at many universities that deal with adult learners. But the process of evaluating work experience for college credit is complex.

85. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College

86. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 5. You are promised a diploma—an instant degree—within 30 days of application, regardless of your status upon entry . Degree mills are in the business of selling paper—fake diplomas and transcripts. Ergo, they’ll get that piece of paper to you as quickly as possible.

87. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College

88. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 6. You are promised a degree in exchange for a lump sum—typically $399-$2,000 for an undergraduate degree and up to $3,000 for a graduate degree . Universities do not commonly charge flat fees. They typically charge per credit or per course tuition and fees.

89. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College

90. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 7. Your prospective university has multiple complaints on file . For trustworthy factual accreditation reports, visit Get Educated’s Diploma Mill Police.

91. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 8. Your online "admission counselor " assures you that international online universities can’t be accredited in the United States by CHEA-recognized agencies . This is a lie.

92. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 9. The school’s website either lists no faculty or lists faculty who have attended schools accredited by bogus agencies.

93. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College 10. The university offers online degrees almost exclusively citizens but is conveniently located in a foreign country, quite often a tiny nation that lacks any system of academic accreditation.

94. Top 10 Signs: Diploma Mill vs. Real College

95. References Axact: Pakistani 'diploma mill' of fake degrees exposed https :// economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/pakistani-diploma-mill-of-fake-degrees-exposed/articleshow/62528628.cms Diploma Mill https :// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma_mill Diploma mills in the United States https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma_mills_in_the_United_States Diploma Mills: 9 Strategies for Tackling One of Higher Education's . https:// wenr.wes.org/2017/12/diploma-mills-9-strategies-for-tackling-one-of-higher-educations-most-wicked-problems Fake universities and diploma mills in India https:// www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140830070342-3350409-fake-universities-and-diploma-mills-in-india 10 Ways to Spot a Diploma Mill | GetEducated https :// www.geteducated.com/college-degree-mills/161-college-degree-or-diploma-mill

96. Thanks…