An employer or university faced with an applicant who claims on a CV to hold a PhD from Columbia State University, an MSc in economics from Trinity College and University, or a doctorate from PULC in California might be easily forgiven for thinking they had a bright young candidate for the workforce.
But appearances can be deceptive. Who would think of checking out credentials like this? And, if you did want to check out the applicant, how would you go about it. A phone call to either of these "universities" would probably confirm the applicant's claims to have pursued excellent post-graduate research. No further checks might appear to be necessary.
Columbia State University and Trinity College and University are impressive sounding institutions, with an Ivy League ring to their name. But both are among the most notorious diploma mills operating on the internet and offering degrees for a very low price compared to the cost of spending up to seven years pursuing a PhD at a reputable university.
Many diploma mills advertise in such unlikely educational journals as the National Enquirer. Others also advertise in the Economist - and a quick surf of the net will bring up hundreds of diploma mills.
Not all distance learning degrees are to be dismissed. The pioneering work of the University of London, the Open University and the University of South Africa has made distance learning a valuable and accessible opportunity for many who missed out on third-level and postgraduate education the first time round. But many diploma mills claim they are in the forefront of pioneering distance education, offering their degrees for little or no work at all.
Diploma mills fall into three categories. Some are run by confidence tricksters who are willing to dupe those who genuinely wish to pursue a degree but cannot afford to take time off work or time away from home to study. Others blatantly meet the needs of those who wish to con potential employers or enhance their own standing.
A third group includes "colleges" associated with either fundamentalist churches or New Age cults.
Often these mills use names which serve to confuse them with longest-established, reputable foundations. For example, La Salle University in Louisiana has no relationship to the regionally accredited La Salle University in Philadelphia.
With the advent of web pages, anyone can set up an on-line university. A Canadian student, Emir Mohammed, has set up a website at www.angelfire.com/mo/ EmirMohammed/for the non-existent Oxford Open University to show how easy the task it can be done.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the internet fast is becoming a bonanza for diploma mills. Many of these institutions give no address apart from a PO Box number and list no faculty members. Despite this anonymity they invite web surfers to give intimate personal details and to take the risky option of paying for their "degrees" by revealing their credit card numbers.
The most notorious degree mill of recent years, Columbia State University, was closed by the Attorney General of Louisiana, Richard Ieyoub. He accused it of "fraudulent advertising gimmicks."
According to Ieyoub, the problem is that "CSU is a fake - there's no school, no accreditation, and all of the research, testimonials and degrees are bogus. Even the so-called founder of the university pictured in the brochure isn't real."
La Salle University in Louisiana was run by the World Christian Church and once offered over 1,200 academic programmes with degrees ranging from nuclear energy to hypnotherapy and theocentric psychology. It faced closure after its founding president, Thomas Kirk, was jailed, his mansion sold, and the university assets were seized by the FBI.
Today it's operated by the Las Salle Education Corporation, but has major problems in gaining any acceptance in the academic world.
Trinity College and University claims at different times to be based in Delaware, Panama and Spain. It has openly sold its degrees through agents operating in Cyprus, West Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Amsterdam and Cambridge - Trinity College Cambridge certainly had a deceptive ring about it. On its website - www.trinityuni.org - TCU claims: "We can award any degree in any subject (except medicine) . . . you can specify the date on any degree awarded."
The degrees range from $255 for a BA to $612 for a PhD, with all three degrees in any one subject for $940. But you can pay more. One agent promises to deliver TCU degrees within 30 days, but at a costs ranging from $1,500 to $2,000 for its doctorates. The agent runs a similar scheme, with identical fees, for the self-styled University of the Americas, which also claims to be based in Panama.
Many of the self-styled colleges and universities manage to operate freely because 15 states in the US do not require schools that claim to be religious foundations to conform to normal licensing regulations.
A number of valuable websites can help a potential employer or university dealing with applicants who may claim degrees from suspected diploma mills. A website run by Dipscam lists America's 10 top diploma mills, with a warning that "receiving a degree from one of these `schools' can be dangerous to your reputation" - the address is http:// cust3.iamerica.net/easywave/top10.htm
Dr Steve Levicoff of the Institute on Religion and Law and author of Name it and Frame It?, a best-selling guide to diploma mills and mail-order ordinations, has released the full book on the internet - http:// training.loyola.edu/cdld/nifi.html However, critics point out that Levicoff is harsh on legitimate, unaccredited schools with long-standing reputations.
Dr John Bear - "the grand-daddy of research in the field" according to Levicoff - produces a monthly on-line newsletter on the subject (www.degree.net/). His guide to non-traditional universities, Bear's Guide to Earning College Degrees Non-traditionally, is regarded by many as the best in the field.
However, some critics are sceptical of Bear because of his links with non-traditional, unaccredited universities, including Greenwich University, Hawaii; Fairfax University, Florida; and Columbia Pacific, California. Bear denies that these institutions are diploma mills.
Most diploma mills are associated with New Age cults or fundamentalist sects. Among supposed Bible colleges, the American Institute of Holistic Theology in Ohio requires only five courses and a dissertation of 25 to 30 pages for its doctorates, and its degrees range in price from $1,395 to $2,485.
The institute offers courses in parapsychic science, naturology, Feng Shui and courses "for seekers of the Truth and Big Foot". And yet, surprisingly for a theological college, it claims its programme leading to the degree of doctor of divinity (DD) is not written "from the premise of an established belief system". It says it "holds no creed, doctrine or religious point of view."
The National Interfaith Seminary in St Paul, Minnesota, offers an "honorary" DD from $1,500, which includes automatic ordination by the Universal Life Church - although it fails to point out that the ULC ordains everyone and anyone on the internet without charge.
If you must buy a degree from a diploma mill, why pay up to $8,000 to a bogus university or risk unauthorised transactions using your credit card number when you can buy one cheaply and legally. Because the American law separating church and state makes no distinction between one church and another, doctorates from a mail-order church in California are as legally valid as similar degrees from a pontifical institute accredited by the Vatican - even if they are worthless academically.
The DD from the Progressive Universal Life Church in Sacramento, California, costs a mere $75, and the PhD, described by PULC as "our most prestigious degree", costs $195. World Christianship Ministries in Fresno, California, offers mail-order ordination packages from $62 to $185. An honorary DD certificate comes free with any package costing $82 or more, or is available separately for a donation of $39 (www.wcm.org/request.html).
The Universal Life Church in Modesto, California, which offers to ordain all web-surfers without charge, hands out its honorary DD to all who donate $20 to the church's programmes. It's as legal as a DD handed out by any church in the US, has as much academic standing as a doctorate from any degree mill, and is cheap and fun if all you want to do is have your bank manager call you Doctor.
But then, if all you want is a bit of fun and a colourful piece of paper to frame in the bathroom, $20 is a high fee compared to the free degrees that can be printed from the website run by the delightfully-named General Delivery University (hhtp:// www.bandersnatch.com/colordip.htm).
In the end, there are key rules that any suspicious employer or faculty should follow. Nobody should be fooled by impressive names, as has been proved by Columbia State University and Trinity College and University. Questions must be asked when applicants claim degrees from a US university, particularly one in Hawaii, Louisiana or California, but whose CVs show they have spent little or no time in the US.
