U.S. Opens Campaign Against Fake 'Diploma Mills'
Tue Feb 1, 2005 06:42 PM ET
By Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials gave employers new tools on Tuesday to try to determine whether a degree comes from a bogus "diploma mill" or a genuine school of higher education.
The "mills" offer bogus college, graduate and even medical degrees for cash, enabling unscrupulous people to get jobs for which they lack proper qualifications or to qualify improperly for higher pay, several lawmakers said at a congressional news conference unveiling the new tools.
"Diploma mills pose dangers to consumers and employers," said Delaware Republican Rep. Michael Castle. "They are destructive and unethical."
Diploma mills are often fly-by-night on-line entities, which change names and locations frequently. Estimates of their yearly revenue range from $200 million to $500 million.
On a Web site (www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation) and through new publications made available to employers and consumers, the Department of Education, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Office of Personnel Management list genuinely accredited colleges, universities and trade schools and give warning signs about when a degree or school might not be aboveboard.
The red flags include someone who claims to have earned a degree in just a few months, or several degrees in one year; a job applicant who claims to have earned a graduate degree without attending college; or a school that sounds like a well-known college or university but is located in an unexpected place.
The lawmakers and government officials stressed, however, that many on-line institutions were legitimate and accredited. Some schools that do not want federal student aid, notably certain conservative Christian schools, choose not to seek government accreditation but still offer a legitimate degree.
Assistant Secretary of Education Sally Stroup said the department chose a "positive" list of accredited schools, rather than try to list the "diploma mills" because they change names and venues so often. The state of Oregon, she said, had assembled a list of 200 to 250 bogus schools.
The Web site lists well-known schools, such as Ivy League colleges, as well as more obscure institutions. The Deep Muscle Therapy School in Wilmington, Delaware, for instance, is a legitimate accredited institution of noncollegiate education, while some schools with more familiar-sounding names may be fakes.
Earlier, Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who now chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, urged federal investigators to look into the problem -- and they were able to purchase phony degrees in the senator's name.
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