Does your local MAGA candidate have a diploma mill education?

WHAT OTHER REASONABLE EXPLANATION COULD THERE BE FOR HOW DUMB MAGA LEADERS ARE... THEIR CREDENTIALS MUST BE AS FAKE AS THE "NEWS" THEY PUMP OUT...

Diploma Mills: 9 Strategies for Tackling One of Higher Education’s Most Wicked Problems

This article examines the roots and scope of the diploma mill problem, the damage they do to individuals, institutions, and society, and, most importantly, the solutions that can be brought to bear against them.

Diploma mills are a chronic problem in both higher and secondary education. Particularly in the digital age, they operate in the shadows, setting up business operations in one country, and offering “degrees” for a price through multiple, cleverly packaged websites. At a moment in history when online education is widely accepted and the acquisition of credentials often piecemeal, they are sometimes hard to recognize, especially for potential students hoping to get a leg up in the job market.

Consider the roughly 98 million people in America who qualify as “post-traditional learners” according to a 2017 “manifesto” by the American Council on Education (ACE). Nearly 31 million are, says ACE, “at the doorstep of a credential” with “one year of college or more [but] no degree to show for it.” Many have attended and earned credits from a patchwork of institutions, only to be thwarted by the challenges of balancing the demands of family and work life. Many are from economically vulnerable backgrounds. Some are immigrants, others the children of immigrants. They tend, says ACE, to “attend less well-resourced, open access institutions.” Given the wage premium attached to even an associate degree – an estimated USD$ 3,100 a year in after-tax earnings – these post-traditional learners are often motivated to seek career-oriented credentials.

This combination of characteristics and motivations makes these degree-seekers, as a group, particularly vulnerable to the come-ons of the shady operators of degree or diploma mills. They are not alone, and the problem of diploma mills is not solely an American one: Other individuals vulnerable to the mills’ pitch are “students and parents in developing countries, [who are] attracted by the opportunity of a foreign and more portable degree,” says Judith S. Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, and Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic of UNESCO’s Division of Higher Education.

Granted: Not all “graduates” are dupes of shady purveyors of false credentials. Some are explicitly seeking unfair shortcuts to career advancement and higher earnings.

https://wenr.wes.org/2017/12/diploma-mills-9-strategies-for-tackling-one-of-higher-educations-most-wicked-problems

The Economics of Fake Degrees.

My cat can get a Ph.D., and that’s a problem.

It’s surprising how many house pets hold advanced degrees. Last year a dog received his MBA from the American University of London, a non-accredited distance-learning institution. It feels as if I should add “not to be confused with the American University in London,” but getting people to confuse them seems like a pretty basic feature of the whole AUOL marketing strategy.

The dog, identified as “Peter Smith” on his diploma, goes by Pete. He was granted his degree on the basis of “previous experiential learning,” along with payment of 4,500 pounds ($7,723). The funds were provided by a BBC news program, which also helped Pete fill out the paperwork. The American University of London required that Pete submit evidence of his qualifications as well as a photograph. The applicant submitted neither, as the BBC website explains, “since the qualifications did not exist and the applicant might as well have been a Trump supporter.”

https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/07/a-study-shows-the-market-for-fake-degrees-churned-out-by-dubious-diploma-mills.html

The real cost of America's online diploma mill nightmare.

In today's job market, applicants without high school degrees are rarely even considered

https://theweek.com/articles/443244/real-cost-americas-online-diploma-mill-nightmare

Academic Fraud and the World’s Largest Diploma Mill.

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of three articles about academic fraud. The first described the history and growth of diploma mills and counterfeit operations. This article provides an in-depth look at the operations of the world’s largest diploma mill, Axact, Ltd., a criminal enterprise with more than 8 million customers worldwide that has generated several billion dollars. The third article will detail how to identify diploma mills and Axact websites.

https://www.aacrao.org/docs/default-source/webinar-documents/94-4-academic-fraud-and-the-worlds-largest-diploma-mill.pdf?sfvrsn=4b276f1f_2

THE GROWING RISK OF DIPLOMA MILLS

Fake degrees created by diploma mills—those scam schools that exist only on a computer server somewhere—are proliferating throughout the business world, according to professional organizations involved in academic credential evaluation. That fits with Mintz Group’s observations as a background-screening company. We and our executive search firm clients need to remain alert to signs of this academic fraud.

https://www.aesc.org/insights/magazine/article/growing-risk-diploma-mills