Diploma Mills

The existence of fake educational institutions that sell counterfeit diplomas and other educational credentials is almost as old as higher education itself, but it has become an increasing problem since the late twentieth century when an increased demand for a more educated workforce coincided with new technology that made offering fake degrees easier. Reformers have pushed for federal legislation to suppress diploma mills, but even in the face of publicity generated by the St. Regis University case and congressional hearings, legislative action has been limited.

For more than a century, American educators, legislators, and others have deplored the existence of businesses that provide fraudulent education credentials to those who are willing to pay for them. Despite complaints, investigations, and even occasional prosecutions, diploma mills (also known as degree mills) not only survive but also prosper. One might say they prosper exceedingly well. According to one account, a single diploma mill may have made as much as $72 million in its final four years of operation (Ezell & Bear, 2005). The peaks in the profits of the bogus diploma industry have coincided with periods when the demand for degrees has been high. Diploma mills flourished in fourteenth-century Europe when doctoral degrees were much in demand but often took as much as fifteen years to acquire (Ezell & Bear, 2005). They flourished in the United States in the post-Civil War period after the Morrill Act, also known as the Land Grant College Act, led to the founding of new colleges and extended access to higher education. Among the earliest references to degree mills in the United States is a comment in 1876 from John Eaton, a United States Commissioner of Education, who declared the mills a blemish on the reputation of American education. The GI Bill (The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944) allowed millions of veterans to attend college, and it also brought an increase in the number of diploma mills (Ezell & Bear, 2005). However, it was the unprecedented demand for a well-educated workforce and the technological advances of the late twentieth century, particularly the Internet, that launched a new golden age for the sellers of fake degrees and made the business what Ezell and Bear in 2005 termed a billion-dollar industry.

Although the terms "diploma mill" and "degree mill" are used interchangeably in the popular press and elsewhere, some scholars in the field assign the terms different meanings, considering the individuals or groups who award degrees from a fake college degree mills, and those that offer fraudulent degrees from legitimate institutions diploma mills (Contreras & Gollin, 2009). It should also be noted that although the terms most often refer to the awarding of bogus degrees, high school diploma mills also exist. In a 2012 judgment against Salem Kureshi, a federal court ordered him to refund three times the $249 that 30,500 individuals had each paid to receive fake diplomas from Belford High School and Belford University (Diploma Mill Graduates, 2012). Two years later, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requested a U.S. district court in Florida shut down a diploma mill that has taken in more than $11 million for providing fake high school diplomas (FTC Action, 2014). Despite cases such as these, the bulk of fake credentials involve college degrees, one-third of them advanced degrees, which give credit for what is vaguely termed "life experience." Diploma mill customers can be found in a wide range of professions, including education, medicine, and engineering, and at every level within those professions. In education, for example, fake diplomas have been purchased by classroom teachers, coaches, and administrators from school principals to a college president (Gollin, Lawrence & Contreras, 2010) Diploma mills are a global problem, but most diploma mills are located in fact or by impression within the United States. Erik Johansson, a credential evaluator of foreign credentials for the Swedish labor market and an adviser on credentialing to the Swedish higher education community, says that more than 50 percent of the credentials from questionable universities in the more than ten years he has been investigating have been from diploma mills located in the United States or from schools that present themselves as being in the United States. (Tobenkin, 2011). One reason for the strong U.S. connection is the lack of a central authority governing higher education. Many countries have a department or ministry of education within the national government that is charged with oversight of the nation's colleges and universities. Since the U.S. Constitution does not recognize authority over education as a federal power, that authority becomes the province of state governments. Only twelve states have laws that specifically address the illegality of using credentials from diploma mills: Illinois, Indiana (limited to doctorates), Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. No federal law makes using fake academic credentials illegal or labels operating a diploma mill a crime (Pina, 2010).

Congress does have the power to give institutions the authority to award college degrees, but it is a power seldom exercised. Only the five military service academies (U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and U.S. Air Force Academy) and a few programs such as the Community College of the Air Force were directly established by Congress. American Indian tribes recognized as sovereign by the United States government also have the power to establish degree-granting institutions. The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, in which the term "diploma mill" was for the first time defined by federal law, also reasserts the authority of each state to determine the standards and policies that govern the awarding of degrees within its boundaries (Contreras & Gollin, 2009).

Once a state has given an institution the authority to grant degrees, there is no oversight to determine the quality of the institution's academic programs. Most states do demand that institutions be accredited in order for the institutions and the students enrolled in the institutions to receive state funds. Furthermore, states typically require that individuals who are licensed for particular professions are graduates of accredited institutions or programs. Similarly, the federal government requires students who receive federal funds to be enrolled in institutions authorized by the state and accredited by a federally recognized accrediting agency.

These agencies are nonprofit, non-governmental organizations that attest to the quality of academic instruction and the reputation of the faculty of an institution after the institution has gone through an evaluation process that includes self-study, peer-review, and an onsite visit that typically involves observation and interviews with students, faculty, and administrators. Evaluations are conducted every three to seven years. The accrediting agencies include national faith-related organizations that accredit religiously affiliated institutions, most of which are degree-granting and nonprofit; national career-related organizations that evaluate primarily for-profit career-based, degree-granting and non-degree-granting institutions; and regional organizations that attest to the quality of nonprofit, degree-granting institutions. In 2010-2011, there were eighty recognized regional and national accrediting organizations in the United States engaged in reviewing postsecondary educational institutions in 50 states and 125 other countries (Eaton, 2012). Accreditation mills exist, most with impressive sounding names to deceive the unwary, to provide accreditation to diploma mills and other schools unaccredited by legitimate accrediting agencies.

An accreditation process and restrictions on state and federal funding are not sufficient to prevent the operation of diploma mills. The federal government has largely left prevention and prosecution of diploma mill owners to the states, and the results have been inconsistent. Some states do little more than ignore the problem; others have mounted a crusade against the industry. Oregon, a leader in the fight against diploma mills, not only bans degrees from mills but also makes the use of such a degree civil fraud and a criminal misdemeanor (Contreras & Gollin, 2009). Some states have prosecuted individuals operating diploma mills, but the operations themselves often just move to another state and continue to sell false academic credentials. For example, When the Pennsylvania attorney general sued the owner of the "University of Berkley" diploma mill in 2005, an Erie County judge ordered the school's assets returned, specifying that the owner could no longer operate in Pennsylvania and must so state on his website. In 2009, the University of Berkley continued to sell diplomas from a website that duly acknowledged the site could not sell to residents of Pennsylvania. (Gollin et al., 2010).The only sustained federal approach to the problem was the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) task force, Operation Diploma Scam (DipScam), which Agent Allen Ezell ran for more than a decade through the Field Office of the FBI in Charlotte, North Carolina. The FBI dismantled DipScam shortly after Ezell's retirement in 1991 (Ezell & Bear, 2005).

Beginning with an investigation of Southeastern University in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1980, Ezell and his team saw forty schools closed, nineteen federal grand jury indictments returned, and more than twenty individuals convicted during the eleven years of DipScam (Gollin et al., 2010). Generally federal agencies have been reluctant to become involved in diploma mill cases. This has not always been the case. The FTC brought charges against Joseph Jayko and his "Cramwell Institute" and "Cramwell Research Institute" in 1956, commenting that the commission had taken action against "hundreds of other diploma mills during the previous twenty years" and noting that customers' understanding that they were purchasing fraudulent credentials was irrelevant to the charges (Gollin et al., 2010, p. 18). Half a century later the FTC appeared less ready to act, citing the informed customers who buy fake diplomas in full knowledge of the disreputable vendors as a prime reason for their inaction (Contreras & Gollin, 2009).

Further Insights

When Allen Ezell retired, he had reason to feel optimistic about the suppression of diploma mills. He and his team had seen a significant number of diploma mills closed, and the congressional hearings conducted by Representative Claude Pepper (Democrat, Florida) and the Subcommittee on Housing and Consumer Interests of the Select Committee on Aging in 1984-1985 had made legislators and the public aware of the scope of the problem (Ezell & Bear, 2005). But the FBI chose not to continue its investigations, and no legislative action was taken. In the years following DipScam, the Internet and the customer base it opened to diploma mill owners made the business easier and more lucrative than ever. Alan Contreras, widely acknowledged as a national expert on diploma mills, says that the Internet not only improved the marketing of faked academic credentials, but web pages, which were quite sophisticated for some mills, provided an opportunity for the bogus institutions to look more authentic, providing photographs, catalogs, and testimonials (Government Accountability Office, 2004).

In the case of St. Regis University, arguably the best-known diploma mill case, attorneys and investigators from the offices of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, United States Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Federal Protective Agency, State of Washington Attorney General, and the Spokane Police Department contributed to shutting down a diploma mill that had sold bogus diplomas from at least 66 legitimate universities and 121 fake universities (Gollin et al., 2010). On August 11, 2005, search warrants were served and records confiscated at seven locations in three states. Dixie Randock, a high school dropout, and her husband Steve began selling fake academic credentials in 1999 from their home in Spokane, Washington. By the time a grand jury indicted the Randocks and six of their business colleagues on charges of mail fraud and other felonies in October, 2005, they had sold 10,815 degrees and accompanying credentials to thousands of buyers in 131 countries for a total of $7,369,907 (Ezell & Bear, 2005). In 2001, the Randocks created St. Regis University. Although they sold degrees under the names of at least six other fake universities and counterfeit diplomas from legitimate universities such as the University of Maryland, George Washington University, the University of Missouri, and Texas A&M University, the St. Regis exploit was their boldest move and the one that eventually led to their downfall.

In 2002, the Randocks decided they needed a foreign country to supply official recognition of St. Regis. Richard Novak, a former used car salesman, was sent to Washington, D.C., to contact officials and make the appropriate contacts. Novak, who had been named chief executive officer of the illusory St. Regis, visited the Liberian embassy, where he met Abdulah Dunbar, the embassy's deputy chief of mission. Dunbar was receptive to Novak's request but asked for $4,000. Novak was able to negotiate for a lesser figure. He reported to the Randocks that he had acquired Liberian cooperation for $2,250, and he had in hand credentials that were duplicates of those granted to legitimate Nigerian universities. The Randocks eventually had as many as a dozen Liberian officials on their payroll along with an international faculty with their own bogus credentials who operated various "schools" within the university from five other countries (Gollin et al., 2010).

Although the St. Regis University case is the most notorious example of U.S. diploma mills and significant because criminal charges were filed against the Randocks, Novak, and five of their coworkers with four of the eight serving prison sentences, it is not an isolated case. It is not even the largest diploma mill case. That title belongs to an operation directed by an American living in Bucharest, Romania, who used a mail-forwarding service in Ireland, had diplomas printed in Israel, and channeled funds through a bank in Cyprus. The owner sold more than 200,000 diplomas, mostly to North Americans, under the names of more than thirty different fake universities. A full service mill, the program offered a package that included a diploma (with the date of the purchaser's choice), a transcript (with courses and grades chosen by the purchaser), information on a degree verification service for employers to contact, and two letters of recommendation (Ezell & Bear, 2005). However, it was a second business, the sale of more than 350,000 fake international drivers' licenses, that captured the attention of the Federal Trade Commission in 2003. The FTC settled the case when three companies and three individuals agreed to pay $57,000 in penalties and take down their websites. Ezell and Bear (2005) point out that the monetary penalty was the equivalent of eight hours of revenue for the offenders, and the websites were soon reestablished under new names.

Viewpoints

Given the failure of most states to deal effectively with the problem of diploma mills and the limited action of federal agencies in addressing the issue, experts point to the need for federal legislation if diploma mills are to be stopped. In 2006, Dr. Creola Johnson proposed a model federal statute, the Authentic Credentials in Higher Education Act, which would allow students to file a civil suit on the basis of a school's providing false or misleading information about its accreditation status or failing to disclose its lack of accreditation by an accrediting agency recognized by the Department of Education. Students could recover treble damages plus attorneys' fees in such action. Johnson's proposed legislation also criminalizes the selling of any fraudulent degree, the providing of false academic verification materials and services, and knowingly assisting in the operation of a diploma mill. History shows that the cases that have most effectively suppressed diploma mills have been criminal prosecutions in which multiple government agencies at the state, federal, and at times, local levels have collaborated.

Congressional hearings and media coverage of the St. Regis University case helped those who believed federal legislation on diploma mills was necessary to push for action. The version of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 that originated in the House of Representatives included a lengthy section (more than twelve pages) on diploma mills, but legislators who opposed the reforms successfully fought to delete much of the material in conference committee. The final version does little more than provide a legal definition (Gollin et al., 2010). The act also called for continued efforts at the federal level to identify and suppress diploma mills, but such action has been limited.

Terms & Concepts

Accrediting agency: A regional or national body that evaluates institutions of higher learning, generally in areas such as student services, quality of instruction, and quality of faculty, and attests that these institutions meet, or fail to meet, minimum standards set by a peer review board that includes faculty from accredited institutions.

Accrediting mill: An organization that provides accreditations to educational institutions without requiring an actual evaluation of programs, teaching practices, or faculty credentials.

Degree mill: An enterprise that sells counterfeit diplomas from legitimate educational institutions.

Diploma mill: An organization that sells diplomas and other educational credentials from fake educational institutions on the basis of life experience, open-book examinations that may be retaken multiple times, or dissertations of ten pages or less.

Federal Trade Commission: An independent agency of the United States government established by Congress in 1914 and charged with consumer protection and enforcement of anti-trust laws.

Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008: An act passed by the 110th Congress on August 14, 2008, which reauthorized the Higher Education Act of 1965 and added new sections, including a definition of "diploma mill," a requirement that the Secretary of Education maintain information and resources available on the department website to inform students and families concerning how to avoid diploma mills, and a requirement that a federal multi-agency effort to prevent, identify, and prosecute diploma mills be continued.

Bibliography

Contreras, A., and Gollin, G. (2009). The real and the fake degree and diploma mills." Change 41(2), 36-43. Retrieved December 29, 2014 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search. ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=369 84690&site=ehost-live

Diploma mill graduates wait for $22.7 million payout. (2012). Successful Registrar, 12(9), 2. Retrieved December 29, 2014 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=82573795&site=ehost-live

Eaton, J. S. (2012). An overview of U. S. accreditation. Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Retrieved January 3, 2015 from http://www.chea.org/pdf/Overview%20of%20US%20Accreditation%202012.pdf

Ezell, A., & Bear, J. (2005). Degree mills: The billion-dollar industry that has sold over a million fake diplomas. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

FTC action halts online high school diploma mill that made $11 million selling worthless diplomas to students. (2014). Federal Trade Commission. Retrieved December 30, 2014 from http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pressreleases/2014/09/ftc-action-halts-online-high-schooldiploma-mill-made-11-million

Gollin, G., Lawrence, E., Contreras, A. (2010). Complexities in legislative suppression of diploma mills. Stanford Law & Policy Review, 21, 1-32. Retrieved January 3, 2015 from https://journals.law.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/stanford-law-policy-review/print/2010/01/gollin%5F21%5Fstan.%5Fl.%5Fpoly%5Frev.%5F1.pdf

Government Accountability Office. (2004) Diploma mills: Federal employees have obtained degrees from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools, some at government expense. Retrieved December 30, 2014 from http://www.gao.gov/htext/d04771t.html.

Piña, A. A. (2010). Online diploma mills: Implications for legitimate distance education. Distance Education, 31(1), 121-126. doi:10.1080/01587911003725063. Retrieved December 29, 2014 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=49459731& site=ehost-live

Tobenkin, D. (2011). Keeping It Honest. International Educator (1059-4221), 20(1), 32-42. Retrieved December 29, 2014 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp x?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=56631384&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Bartlett, T., and Smallwood, S. (2004, June 25). Inside the multimillion-dollar world of diploma mills. Chronicle of Higher Education, 50(42), A8. Retrieved December 30, 2014 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=13670290&site=ehost-live

Johnson, V. R. (2008). Corruption in education: A global legal challenge. Santa Clara Law Review, 48(1). Retrieved December 30, 2014 from http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview/vol48/iss1/1

Noble, D. F. (2001). Digital diploma mills: The automation of higher education. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.

Wolman, D. (2009, December 21). Fraud U: Toppling a bogusdiploma empire. Retrieved January 3, 2015 from http://www.wired.com/2009/12/ff%5Ffake%5Fphysics/all/

"World's largest university" is a scam, investigation reveals. (2015). Chronicle of Higher Education, 61(25), A17. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=101381046& site=ehost-live