An accreditation mill is an organization that purports to award

educational accreditation Educational accreditation is a quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated and verified by an external body to determine whether applicable and recognized standards are met. ...

to higher education institutions without having government authority or recognition from mainstream

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

to operate as an accreditor. Implicit in the terminology is the assumption that the "mill" has low standards (or no standards) for such accreditation. Accreditation mills are much like

diploma mill A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is a company or organization that claims to be a higher education institution but provides illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee. The degrees can be fabricated (made-up), falsified (fa ...

s, and in many cases are closely associated with diploma mills. The "accreditation" they supply has no legal or academic value but is used in diploma mill marketing to help attract students.Luca Lantero
Degree Mills: non-accredited and irregular higher education institutions
, Information Centre on Academic Mobility and Equivalence (CIMEA), Italy. Some institutions obtain accreditation from an independent group with low standards. In other cases, the institution sets up its own seemingly independent accreditation board and then accredits itself. Diploma mills provide phony credentials
By Helena Andrews, ''

The Capital Times ''The Capital Times'' (or ''Cap Times'') is a digital-first newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by The Capital Times Company. The company also owns 50 percent of Capital Newspapers, which now does business as Madison Media Partners. The ot ...

''/

Medill News Service The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University that offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It frequently ranks as the top school of journalism in the Unite ...

, February 14, 2005 This gives the appearance that an outside group has approved the education that is offered at the school. In many countries, accreditation is a government function. In the United States, governments normally do not accredit academic institutions, but federal education authorities recognize about 18 private accrediting organizations for institutional accreditation of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

institutions and more than 60 other private organizations for accreditation of specific educational programs. While standards vary from organization to organization, without recognition from the

Council for Higher Education Accreditation The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is a United States organization of degree-granting colleges and universities. It identifies its purpose as providing national advocacy for academic quality through accreditation in order t ...

(CHEA) (a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

) or the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

, the claims made by independent groups hold no value in the academic community.

Characteristics

CHEA has published a list of attributes of accreditation mills to help consumers identify them. According to CHEA, an accreditation operation might be a "mill" if it: *Allows accreditation to be purchased *Allows institutions to attain accredited status in a very short period of time *Does not conduct site visits or interviews of key personnel as part of its accreditation process, instead of reviewing institutions solely on the basis of submitted documents *Grants “permanent” accreditation, with no requirement for later periodic review *Claims recognition from an authority such as CHEA without appearing on lists of accreditors recognized by that authority *Has a name that is very similar to the name of a recognized accrediting organization *Publishes a list of institutions or programs that it has accredited without the knowledge of the listed institutions and programs *Publishes few or no standards for quality *Publishes claims for which there is no evidence. Verifile's Accredibase notes that some accreditation mills do not reveal their locations, which makes it difficult to determine whether they are legitimate. Some other mills have been found to use the same

address An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along ...

es as the education providers that claim accreditation from them.

Consumer information resources

To help consumers avoid diploma mills and accreditation mills, several national and international bodies publish lists of recognized accreditors and accredited educational institutions, as well as accreditors that are known to lack the necessary legal authority or recognition, and higher education providers known to lack accreditation. The United States organization CHEA maintains an international directory of education ministries and other recognized higher education

quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

bodies worldwide. The 2007 version of that directory lists 467 recognized bodies in 175 countries.

Proposed U.S. legal definition

A proposal for legislation that was announced in the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in January 2010 would have inserted a definition of "accreditation mill" into U.S. law. The proposal, sponsored by Congressmen Timothy Bishop of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Michael Castle Michael Newbold Castle (born July 2, 1939) is an American lawyer and politician who was governor of Delaware (1985–92) and the U.S. representative for (1993–2011). He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes the entire ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, would have defined the term to mean "an education or corporate organization that offers a form of educational recognition or accreditation, for a fee or free of charge, that extend a permanent recognition or accreditation status to an institution with few or no requirements for subsequent periodic reviews; (B) publish sa list of institutions and programs recognized or accredited by such organization that includes institutions and programs that did not apply for or otherwise request such recognition or accreditation by the organization; or (C) lack national recognition by the Secretary of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation."

References

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Characteristics

Consumer information resources

Proposed U.S. legal definition

See also

References

Further reading