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| Digital Diploma Mills and Accreditation Anthony G. Picciano, Hunter College |
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On July 25, 2003, a CBS Evening News story on digital diploma mills interviewed George Gollin, a professor at the University of Illinois, who has researched the growth of fraudulent online programs. He comments that degrees including PhDs are readily available even though "There are no lectures, no staff, no faculty,...just phony documents passed off as legitimate degrees." For those of us who actually teach at legitimate schools where students invest tuition and years of work to earn their degrees, diploma mills are troublesome. For Sloan-C members who share the purpose of making quality education affordable and accessible, the proliferation of mills is more than troubling because they undermine public acceptance of online learning, feeding doubts about the unknown. |
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"...The proliferation of mills
is more than troubling because they undermine public acceptance
of online learning, feeding doubts
about the unknown."
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Higher education in the United States is governed largely by the states, more so than by a federal agency or ministry as in most other countries. With the exception federal financial aid programs, most regulations and all charters for colleges and universities come from state education departments not from the federal government. Once a charter has been awarded, the evaluation of a school is largely the domain of accrediting agencies that have been formed regionally, by discipline, or by the nature of a program. The regional accrediting organizations— Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA), New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC-CIHE), North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA-HLC), Northwest Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (NWA), Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC-ACSU; WASC-ACCJC)—depend upon the voluntary membership of schools, all of whom submit to accreditation reviews conducted by peers selected from member colleges and universities. |
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The legitimacy of accrediting agencies themselves is overseen by the Council for Higher Education (CHEA). Accreditation in the United States is not mandatory, and although some states have begun to tighten regulations for accreditation (Illinois, Idaho, Oregon), most have not. In fact, federal government and state education departments would have difficulty regulating Internet activities including online education that goes on beyond their borders. Moreover, considering colleagues in K-12 schools who are struggling to implement the mandates of the "No Child Left Behind" (Elementary and Secondary Education) Act, an important question is how higher education would benefit from more government oversight. In the final analysis, digital diploma mills will be with us for many years to come as unscrupulous providers attract naïve or unscrupulous customers willing to pay for bogus degrees. Part of the solution to questions about integrity is for higher education to support quality claims with empirical evidence. In fact, more and more, accrediting agencies are requiring formal outcomes assessment measures as part of accreditation reviews. Also helpful are voluntary "seal of approval" organizations that collect and publicize information on quality online schools and programs. The Sloan Consortium, for example, publishes information about online programs that adhere to its quality principles. The task for faculty and administration is to continue to support quality and assessment of academic programs for the vast majority of the 15 million postsecondary students in the United States who attend legitimate colleges and universities, and for the growing percentage of them who choose online learning.
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